public health minister jane ellison has announced that regulations enforcing cigarette plain packaging are to be laid before parliament before the general election in may.once the legislation is passed, cigarettes and handrolling tobacco would have to be sold in standardised packs from may 2016.public health minister jane ellison said &ldquothe secretary of state and i believe that the policy is a proportionate and justified response to the considerable public health harm from smoking tobacco.&ldquoi now propose that we lay regulations for standardised packaging in this parliament to allow for them to come into force at the same time as the european tobacco products directive in may 2016. in doing so we would be bringing the prospect of our first smokefree generation one step closer.&rdquothe proposed regulations would standardise the packaging of all cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco for retail sale byspecifying mandatory colours for retail packaging dull brown for the outside and white for the insidepermitting only specified text such as the brand and variant name and making sure any permitted text conforms to particular requirementsallowing required markings such as health warnings and fiscal marks including covert markings and any future requirements that may be introduced to tackle illicit trade to remain in placethe european tobacco products directive will also bring in further tobacco control measures, including larger picture health warnings, a ban on flavourings, including menthol, and packaging controls to combat illicit trade.professor dame sally davies, chief medical officer for england, said &ldquoi welcome the government&rsquos backing for this policy. i have reviewed the evidence, and agree that standardised packaging would be a positive move for public health, particularly the role it could play in helping to prevent the uptake of smoking by children.&rdquotobacco manufacturers meanwhile have criticised the move. giles roca, director general of the tobacco manufacturers&rsquo association, said &ldquowe are very disappointed with the government&rsquos decision. the evidence from australia clearly shows that plain packaging doesn&rsquot work, so why are they looking to move ahead with it&ldquowe hope that when it comes to the vote, mps will realise that this is simply a flawed policy and vote no to plain packaging. dogma has got in the way of sensible, evidencebased policy making.&rdquounwelcomenational federation of retail newsagents nfrn chief executive paul baxter said &ldquofrom april 6 this year tobacco will be banned from display in all small stores and is already behind screens in supermarkets and larger stores, so the move to introduce standardised packaging is unnecessary, illogical and unwelcome.&ldquocounterfeit cigarettes are already a huge and growing problem and standardised packaging will make this even worse. any legislation that the government introduces should come on the back of rigorous evidence and with plain packaging this is simply not the case.&ldquothe nfrn and its members will be campaigning loudly against plain packaging over the coming weeks and with a general election looming, mps will be wise to listen to their local newsagents before they decide which way they will vote on this measure. i&rsquove said it before and will say it again, putting tobacco in plain packs is plain nonsense.&rdquo 
