UK tobacco industry 'needs progressive regulation'

The UK tobacco industry needs more progressive regulation which can give consumers a choice of safer products, British American Tobacco (BAT) has said.

Kingsley Wheaton, its director of corporate and regulatory affairs, explained that BAT was "abundantly clear" about the harms of smoking, with more than six million customers of the tobacco industry dying each year from smoking worldwide.

British American Tobacco has already put its first electronic or e-cigarette on the market, and the company is spending £160m every year on improving new, safer products.

But Professor John Britton, of the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, stated that Britain's big tobacco companies remain the cause of the problem, rather than the solution, while smoked tobacco remains their greatest source of revenue.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday 29 May.