The tobacco industry is targeting the Department of Health to extract information about meetings between government officials and researchers who are investigating the public-health implications of new smoking policies.
Jordan cars turned yellow when Benson & Hedges began sponsoring them in 1996
One leading tobacco company has asked for – and been given access to – the minutes of a confidential meeting between health department officials, cancer experts and foreign government officials – to the surprise of those who attended the private discussions.
The Freedom of Information requests are part of a global campaign by cigarette manufacturers to fight any further legal restrictions on cigarette sales and promotion, particularly the introduction of plain cigarette packets devoid of company logos and branding.
Yesterday, The Independent revealed that the world’s biggest tobacco company, Philip Morris International, has demanded access to confidential interviews with British children about their smoking attitudes and behaviour, collected as part of a research project at Stirling University funded by the charity Cancer Research UK. It used the Scottish Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to request the information.
Jean King, Cancer Research UK’s director of tobacco control, said: “We would question the tobacco industry’s motivation for trying to access this information. Are they concerned about the health of young people and seeking to clarify the impact of tobacco marketing on the rates of youth smoking?”
The Department of Health has been subject to a series of FOI requests from tobacco companies, including one from Gallaher, which is part of Japan Tobacco International, the world’s third-largest cigarette company and which makes top-selling brands such as Silk Cut, Camel and Benson & Hedges.
Although tobacco companies can use FOI legislation to access government documents, the tobacco industry itself is not subject to the legislation. Critics of the industry point to the difficulty of extracting information from tobacco companies, which frequently refuse to open their own files unless forced to do so by a court order.
“Unlike official information held by government agencies, information held by private companies such as ours is often of a commercial nature and therefore cannot be released for competitive reasons,” Ms Edwards said.
Japan Tobacco International, which owns Gallaher, said it was not possible in the time allowed to list all other FOI requests it has made to government departments, but, in the case of its health department request, the company wanted to understand what materials were being relied upon as evidence for tobacco-control legislation.
The company accepted that Freedom of Information did not apply to its own documents. “Of course, we are not a public authority for the purposes of the FOI Act, although we are subject to various regulatory reporting requirements,” said Jeremy Blackburn, head of communications at Japan Tobacco International UK.
Imperial Tobacco, the makers of the UK’s best-selling brand Lambert & Butler, said that its vending business Sinclair Collis, a wholly-owned subsidiary, has also made an FOI request to the Department of Health because of concerns over a ban on the sale of cigarettes from vending machines.
