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The UK Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2025

A new report examines the extent to which UK policymaking is protected against the vested interests of the tobacco industry

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament in London, England against a blue sky.
The UK has seen a slight improvement in its scoring and ranking in the global tobacco industry interference index when compared to the previous 2023 report, but continues to face frequent industry efforts to influence the policy process.

A new report compiled by the Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG), part of the University of Bath’s Centre for 21st Century Public Health, provides an overview of how the UK government and public officials have responded to tobacco industry efforts to influence public health policy.

The UK Tobacco Industry Interference Index (UKTI) forms part of the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index (GTI), a global survey on how governments are responding to tobacco industry interference and protecting their public health policies from the tobacco industry’s vested and commercial interests. The GTI ranks countries based on how well they implement and comply with guidance and measures designed to prevent the tobacco industry interfering with policymaking by governments specified in Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).

The UK scored 45 out of a possible 100 in the 2025 ranking, compared to a score of 48 in 2023, where a higher score means more evidence of tobacco industry interference has been uncovered. This means that the UK is now ranked 17th globally out of 100 countries, compared to 21st place out of 90 countries in 2023. The report is based on evidence captured between April 2023 and March 2025.

This improved scoring and ranking indicate that some positive steps have been taken towards protecting public health in the UK from tobacco industry interests, but that challenges remain, including multiple industry efforts to influence and undermine the UK Tobacco and Vapes Bill, currently moving through Parliament.

‘Tobacco companies seek to interfere with public health policymaking so they can protect their huge profits from effective regulation of their products.’
— Dr Allen Gallagher Lead author

TCRG has produced the UKTI five times since 2019. Its work has been well received by the tobacco control community and the UK Government. The UK’s GTI score is officially used to monitor how well Article 5.3 is applied, and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) recommends TCRG’s Tobacco Tactics website as way to strengthen the UK’s Article 5.3 compliance by enabling government officials to search whether individuals and organisations requesting meetings have known tobacco industry links.

The UKTI report’s scope captures evidence gathered from across the UK, including two UK government cabinets (with the July 2024 election of a new cabinet falling within the timeframe of the report), devolved administrations, public officials, backbench politicians, political parties, All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) and local councils. These findings are separated into seven key indicators - industry participation in policy development, industry Corporate Social Responsibility activities, benefits to the industry, unnecessary interaction, transparency, conflict of interest and preventive measures.

To gather this information, the UKTI team, led by Dr Allen Gallagher, scrutinised data such as Parliamentary documentation and registers of interest, lobbying records, responses to public consultations, tobacco industry communications, and responses to hundreds of Freedom of Information requests submitted as part of the data collection process for the report, as outlined in this summary of the approach taken for the 2023 Index.

Dr Allen Gallagher comments:

"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 policymaking. We hope that the recommendations in this report will play a role in helping ensure that UK policy is protected from industry interference."

Recommendations

The UKTI includes five key recommendations that should be implemented to further protect public health in the UK from tobacco industry interference. These include:

  • Create and maintain a legally binding and publicly accessible register covering all lobbying and policy;
  • Ensure consistent application of Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC across all consultation processes;
  • Prevent conflicts of interest by prohibiting the tobacco industry and related entities from making contributions to political parties and public officials;
  • Prevent the tobacco industry and vested interests from influencing governments through sponsorship of events at political party conferences and other venues; and
  • Publish details of all meetings, including minutes, with the tobacco industry and vested interests across all government departments and levels.

Read the UKTI report and policy brief

2025 report and policy brief

Previous report and policy briefs

Access the 2025 report

Read the full UK Tobacco Industry Interference Index report