Imperial Brands John Player

Lobbying Organisation Imperial Brands John Player

Date published 18 Jan, 2016

Relevant Matter Legislation

Public Policy Area Health

Period 1 Sep, 2015 to 31 Dec, 2015

Specific Details As the Tobacco Product Directive comes into force in May 2016 John Player requested the Department of Health to provide us with the technical and legal clarity that we require to enable us to provide compliant product to the Irish market. In particular, we require confirmation that Ireland will avail of the tax stamp derogation. Artwork for health warnings was also sought.

Intended results To request that the Department provide us with the techical & legal clarity required so that we can prepare for compliance with the European Tobacco Products Directive by May 2016.

Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity Peter Laschhe, Market Manager

Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?) No

Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign? No

Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client? No

Lobbying activity

The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.

Submission (1)

The consultation on the Directive was extremely limited with some answers confined to a 100 word response. The consultation omitted to seek views on the transposition of Article10, 1 (e) of the Directive which would allow the tax stamp to remain in its current position for a transitional period of 3 years (until 20 May 2019) to allow for a production solution to be identified, tested and implemented across all EU manufacturing sites. It is our understanding that all other Member States with tax stamps intend to provide for this derogation.

Letter (1)

We urgently require the final mandatory health warnings from the Department as new cylinders will have to be ordered for the redesign of our packs but we cannot order the cylinders until we have the high resolution files from the Department.

Designated public officials lobbied

The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them. As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.

Leo Varadkar Minister (Department of Health)