UK regulates relations between tobacco industry and local governments

Similar to the guidance for members of the UK government, a guide to good conduct has been produced for local authorities regarding their interactions with representatives of the tobacco industry. The provisions refer to a general obligation under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which applies to all governments regardless of their area of responsibility or level of intervention.

Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (CCLAT) requires countries that have ratified this text to protect their public policies from interference by the tobacco industry. This general obligation has been supplemented by instructions of practical application. These are based in particular on the observation and principle that there are irreconcilable interests between those pursued by the tobacco industry and the public actors of the WHO treaty. Also, interactions between public authorities in the broad sense and representatives of the tobacco industry and its allies must be limited to what is strictly necessary. Finally, when these relations are strictly necessary, they must take place transparently.

It was to recall this requirement of the CCLAT that the British government had, in June 2023, issued a list of recommendations to all its members, with a view to limiting any interaction with the tobacco industry. The representative organisation of local elected representatives has now declined this document to local elected representatives (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland)[1]. It concerns all stakeholders in local authorities but also internal services, local public agencies and applies to any person who would act on their behalf. Local public agencies can indeed intervene in the local implementation of public health measures. The industry sector is, for its part, understood in the broadest sense, including not only all service providers in this industry, but also lobbyists and farmers.

A distance to be maintained between local public actors and the tobacco industry

This list of recommendations applies to meetings and contacts with representatives of the tobacco industry, and also covers the issue of party and candidate financing and the issue of conflicts of interest. The only meetings and contacts permitted are those aimed at regulating the tobacco industry's activity locally. A report detailing the participants, the topics discussed, the purposes and the financing of these meetings must be published.

The interest of these recommendations is multiple. They recall the obligations of the FCTC treaty that the countries themselves have adopted. In particular, they prevent lobbying actions that would be carried out by people with interests linked to those of the tobacco industry, and facilitate the identification of problematic situations. Finally, they make it possible to make local actors aware of what tobacco control involves. During the 2000s, for example, an intervention by Vital Strategies in the county of Kent revealed financial investments in the tobacco sector, coming from the pension funds of public retirement funds, while the county wanted to locally implement article 5.3 of the FCTC.

In France, the Code of Ethics of the National Assembly and that of the Senate now include a paragraph referring to Article 5.3 of the FCTC. The new National Tobacco Control Programme (PNLT) also provides for similar provisions for all public actors, including local ones.

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