ASH Scotland urges government to increase efforts to eliminate tobacco industry interference, as UK ranking stalls
11 November 2025
ASH Scotland is calling for determined action to improve the UK’s reputation in the global tobacco control community, following a new UK Tobacco Industry Interference Index (UKTI) report scoring the UK only 45 out of 100 on how government and public officials have responded to tobacco industry efforts to influence public health policy.
The report, published today (Tuesday 11 November 2025) by the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control, is based on evidence captured between April 2023 and March 2025 and means that the UK is now ranked 17 out of 100 countries which were assessed as part of the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index.
The UK was ranked best in the world in 2019 before dropping to third in 2021 and down to 21st in 2023.
The improved scoring for 2025 indicates some positive steps have been taken towards protecting public health but challenges remain, including multiple industry efforts to undermine the UK Government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill at Westminster.
The UKTI report makes five key recommendations:
- Create and maintain a legally binding and publicly accessible register covering all lobbying and policy;
- Ensure consistent application of Article 5.3 of the World Health Orgainzation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (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.
Dr Allen Gallagher, Research Fellow for the University of Bath’s Tobacco Control Research Group, said: “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.”
Sheila Duffy, Chief Executive of ASH Scotland, said: “Although there has been some improvement, the UK languishing in 17th place in the Global Tobacco Interference Index is another wake-up call for government departments and elected representatives in Holyrood and Westminster to ensure our democratic processes are firmly shut to those seeking to prevent the development of progressive public health policies.
“There is clearly still much to do to rebuild the UK’s reputation among the global tobacco control community, and we can start by eliminating interference by the tobacco industry and its commercial allies that skews public consultation processes and disrupts, delays and weakens legislation and regulation of addictive health harming tobacco and recreational nicotine products.
“The Scottish Government should take urgent action to fulfil its commitment to audit its compliance with WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Article 5.3, which has been an outstanding commitment since its 2013 tobacco strategy
“Cross party politicians at Westminster must also be aware of and ignore persistent interference by the profit-focused predatory tobacco industry, and pass the Tobacco and Vapes Bill at pace to enable the introduction of strong measures to protect the health of children now and of future generations.”
The United Kingdom Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2025 report is available on the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control website: https://globaltobaccoindex.org/country/GB