Launch of UK Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2025

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A new report led by members of the Tobacco Control Research Group examines the extent to which UK policy making is protected against the vested interests of the tobacco industry, based on evidence captured between April 2023 and March 2025.

The UK Tobacco Industry Interference Index (UKTI) forms part of the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index (GTI), which ranks countries based on how well they implement and comply with guidance and measures designed to prevent tobacco industry interference in policy making, as required by Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).

The UKTI team consulted official parliamentary documents, registers of interest, lobbying records, responses to public consultations, tobacco industry communications, and responses to hundreds of Freedom of Information requests.

The UK scored 45 out of a possible 100, compared to a score of 48 in 2023, where a higher score signifies greater tobacco industry interference. The UK is ranked 17th out of 100 countries participating in the GTI 2025, compared to 21st out of 90 in 2023.

To further protect public health in the UK from tobacco industry interference, the UKTI 2025 recommends various measures, including the creation and maintenance of a legally binding and publicly accessible register covering all lobbying, and ensuring consistent application of Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC across all consultation processes.

Lead author Dr Allen Gallagher comments:

“Tobacco companies seek to interfere with public health policy making so they can protect their huge profits from effective regulation of their products. The 2025 UKTI shows an improvement in how the UK government is responding to these interference attempts when compared to the 2023 report, while showing that the industry continues to be a key threat to independent policy making. We hope that the recommendations in this report will play a role in helping ensure that UK policy is protected from industry interference.”

Read the report:

United Kingdom Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2025, A.W.A. Gallagher, S. Braznell, S. Elmitwalli, D. Thomas

See the UK page on the Global Tobacco Index:

United Kingdom – Global Tobacco Index 2025, Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control

See the Tobacco Tactics page:

And related TCRG research:

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