Bogus industry claims Increasingly, tobacco firms have employed false economic

1. The tobacco industry has a long history of working to subvert or delay health policy. Now public health has shifted to local government councils need to be even more vigilant regarding tobacco industry influence locally: Smoking: Protecting health policy from the influence of the tobacco industry • The tobacco industry engages local authorities to advance commercial interests • There is an international treaty which protects health policy from these interests and it applies to local government • A strong local policy on industry engagement can protect local health policy • The tobacco industry has attempted to engage with local government to shape the policy process in favour of smoking. They have used a range of techniques to get a foot in the door of local authorities in an attempt to influence health policy through: • Shaping the national agenda through local decision makers • Encouraging public health resources to be spent on less effective approaches • Undermining a council’s smokefree policies Imperial Tobacco sponsored shelters on council property - part of their ‘smoking allowed’ campaign. The tobacco industry has already engaged with councils in England: • Providing funding for city academies • Sponsoring theatres, libraries and museums • Seeking to engage local authorities in discussions on harm reduction • Seeking to influence local authority activity on illicit tobacco by providing sniffer dogs. Bogus industry claims Increasingly, tobacco firms have employed false economic arguments to make the case against policies to reduce smoking. Industry claims: Smokefree legislation and other measures ruin small businesses and destroy jobs Increasing tax leads to more illicit tobacco Smoking prevention measures do not work Time and again, these assertions have been shown to be deeply flawed; but by repeating these ‘tobacconomic’ arguments tobacco manufacturers seek to “throw sand in the gears” of regulatory reform.

2. What councils can do The Tobacco Control Plan for England directs local authorities “to take necessary action to protect their tobacco control strategies from vested interests.” The UK is a signatory and local authorities are bound by the commitments in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). This WHO Treaty includes a range of commitments to comprehensive tobacco control. Article 5.3 of the FCTC is a response to decades of industry attempts to subvert public health policy. It states that: “In setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry” Councils can recommit to the FCTC through signing the Local Government Declaration on Tobacco control. To find out more about the Declaration see herehttp://www.newcastle.gov.uk/care-and-wellbeing/public-health • A clear policy The Local Government Declaration on Tobacco Control commits councils to developing and implementing a local policy around engagement with the tobacco industry. It should include commitments to: • only to meet with the tobacco industry in so far as is necessary for its regulation; • publish full details of any meetings between the tobacco industry and members or officers; • refuse any funding from the tobacco industry for public health or other council work; • refuse any partnerships with the tobacco industry in tackling illicit tobacco; • refuse to participate in any tobacco industry “corporate social responsibility” activity. Many councils are concerned about local authority pension scheme investment in tobacco shares. However there are many more pressing and less intractable problems which could be addressed first. The tobacco industry has demonstrated that it cannot be trusted to have a role in health policy. It has long been established public health practice across the world to protect health policy from their commercial interests. Local authorities also have a role to play ensuring local policy is protected. This brief is supported by separate briefings on the following: • Smoking: cost • Smoking: children • Smoking: health inequalities • Smoking: quitting • Smoking: illicit tobacco • ASH report: Tobacconomics May 2014