The first thing I would say about plain packaging is that you can allow whatever product information you want. What you're doing is restricting the types of packaging elements that can cause problems.
I think it's very clear that this committee gets appropriate information on plain packaging. I've served as an expert witness in five different court cases on behalf of the Australian government and the U.K. government. Plain packaging has had a positive impact. The Australian government's own official evaluation has estimated that 100,000 fewer Australians smoke as a result of it.
With all respect to Mr. Hammoud, the arguments he is making have been forwarded by tobacco companies in court cases, and they have been rejected. Tobacco companies have challenged plain packaging in five separate legal rulings, and they have lost. Each of those rulings has affirmed the positive public health impact of plain packaging.
Second, there is no evidence that plain packaging has increased contraband sales. None. That includes numbers from the partner of KPMG, whom the tobacco companies hired to try to find evidence. KPMG took the extraordinary step of writing to the U.K. minister of health to state that the industry was misusing its numbers.
This committee, of course, will make the recommendations it sees fit, but it should be doing so on the proper evidence. I'm afraid that, with all due respect to Mr. Hammoud, those are false claims.