Cigarettes to be sold in plain brown paper packs
Tobacco companies could be forced to sell cigarettes in grey or brown plain packaging in an attempt to deter youngsters from taking up smoking.
Ministers are considering switching all brand packs to a standard bland colour so brightly coloured packages will not lure prospective smokers from a young age.
A spokeswoman from the Department of Health said colourful packs are widely accepted as the last form of marketing available for tobacco companies to recruit new smokers.
Plain packs would just show only basic information and health and picture warnings.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: "We have to try new approaches and take decisions to benefit the population. That's why I want to look at the idea of plain packaging. The evidence is clear that packaging helps to recruit smokers, so it makes sense to consider having less attractive packaging."
Australia are already planning to have plain-packaged cigarettes on shop shelves by July 2012 and earlier this year, Cancer Research UK called for similar legislation to be introduced in England.
The Department of Health said 337,000 people stopped smoking last year with the help of free support from the NHS and the number of smokers has fallen by a quarter in the past decade. In 2007 more than 80,000 deaths and 1.4 million hospital admissions were attributed to smoking and the habit costs the NHS £2.7 billion a year.
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