All tobacco products on sale in England will soon come in standardised plain packaging, the Government has announced. The decision was reached following an independent review, which concluded that standardised packaging would have a significant impact on public health, particularly for children. Across the UK, over 200,000 children aged between 11 and 15 start smoking every year, amounting to around 600 children picking up the habit each day.

Public health minister Jane Ellison said: “We know that the vast majority of smokers want to quit and even more tragically we also know that two-thirds of smokers become addicted before they are 18. As a nation therefore we should consider every effective measure we can to stop children taking up smoking in the first place.”

A brief consultation will run to gather views before the legislation is introduced.