The UK and Sweden have the lowest smoking rates in the European Union as a result of consumers switching from cigarettes to low risk nicotine products. Public Health England and other health organisations have concluded that the health risks of vaping are unlikely to exceed 5% of the risks of...

This discussion paper revisits the issue of state-funded activism in the UK and EU. It starts with the hypothesis that there has been a decline in taxpayers’ money given to political advocacy groups because (1) budget cuts under ‘austerity’ have made less money available to...

Advocates of minimum pricing predicted that it would have an almost immediate impact in Scotland, with modelling forecasting 58 fewer deaths and 1,299 fewer hospital admissions in the first year. In the eight months after minimum pricing was introduced, alcohol-related mortality fell at the same...

Laws passed in late March 2020 to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic are the greatest restrictions on liberty in modern British history. Any benefits that have emerged as a side effect of the restrictions have been far exceeded by the costs to the economy and to civil liberties. Civil society and...

Since 2015, the UK government has worked with the food industry to reformulate a wide range of food products to reduce sugar, fat and calorie content. The industry has been given the target of lowering the number of calories in certain products by 20% by 2025. The reformulation scheme was...