Exclusive: Hands Off Our Packs and the Secretary of State for Health
The Labour MP for Glasgow North West submitted the following written question last week:
John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether (a) he or (b) Ministers in his Department have met representatives of the Hands Off Our Packs campaign; and when any such meetings took place.
The public health minister replied on Andrew Lansley's behalf:
Anne Milton: Details of all official ministerial meetings with external parties are published quarterly in arrears on the Department's website. Data from 1 January 2010 up to the end of June 2011 can be found at [click here]:
Data for July to September are due to be published shortly and data for October to December will be published in the summer.
As a party to the framework convention on tobacco control, the United Kingdom has an obligation to protect the development of public health policy from the vested interests of the tobacco industry.
Oddly, Milton didn't categorically confirm or deny that the Secretary of State for Health had met representatives of the Hands Off Our Packs campaign so we'll just have to keep you guessing.
Nevertheless the image above does look pretty convincing, doesn't it?
H/T Angela Harbutt