Table 2.

Number of newspaper articles stratified by characteristics of interest (n=157)

Category	Explanation of terms	Tobacco company/companies responsible for the data						Total
		PMI	IMT	BAT	JTI	Other*	Consultant & not PMI
TTC third party involved in data creation†
PMI consultant	Consultant hired by PMI to conduct UTPs	53	0	0	0	10	36	99
Anti-counterfeiting group	Campaign group co-founded by the tobacco industry with tobacco-industry members	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
MS Intelligence	Research consultancy hired by PMI to conduct EPSs	5	0	1	0	2	7	15
KPMG	Consultancy hired by PMI (& more recently other TTCs) to compile data from EPSs	6	0	0	0	8	2	16
Populus	Research consultancy hired by PMI to conduct surveys	3	0	0	0	0	0	3
Newspaper collaboration	TTC working together with a newspaper on seizures	0	1	0	8	0	0	9
Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies	Research consultancy hired by PMI	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Tobacco Manufacturers Association/Tobacco Retailers Alliance	Organisations wholly owned by TTCs to campaign on their behalf	0	1	1	0	6	0	8
Type of Illicit mentioned†
Smuggled	See table 1 for full definitions	36	5	0	18	13	28	100
NUKDP		9	3	0	8	4	10	34
Contraband		19	2	0	4	2	7	34
Counterfeit/fake		48	9	0	17	5	31	110
Tobacco-industry illicit (the term ‘genuine’ product used in the article)		5	0	0	1	0	1	7
Cheap/illicit whites		22	1	0	7	1	8	39
Cross border sales		3	1	0	4	4	7	19
Data methodology†
Undercover test purchases	Attempts to purchase illicit tobacco without disclosing the true purpose of the purchase	47	0	0	14	3	26	90
Empty pack survey	Collection of discarded packs which are assessed as domestic or non-domestic	16	1	1	1	12	8	39
Raid/seizure	A search of premises usually in collaboration with trading standards	0	8	0	2	0	1	11
Other methodology‡	Any other methodology including surveys or interviews conducted with tobacco retailers for their perceptions on the scale of illicit trade	9	5	0	9	5	9	37
Data nationality
UK	TTC data refers to the UK	57	13	1	22	11	39	143
Australia	TTC data refers to Australia	1	0	0	0	8	2	11
Both	Article includes TTC data from both UK & Australia	3	0	0	0	0	0	3
Newspaper
Subnational	Article appeared in a subnational publication	47	12	0	16	9	37	121
National	Article appeared in a national UK publication	14	1	1	6	10	4	36
Government agency mentioned§
HMRC only	HMRC	13	1	0	5	5	11	35
Trading standards only	Trading standards agency	17	8	0	1	2	11	39
Both	Both HMRC & trading standards mentioned in the same article	12	2	0	7	1	0	22

*Includes where ‘tobacco companies’ in general are mentioned as the data source; two or more tobacco companies are named; or the tobacco industry owned Tobacco Manufacturers Association is attributed as the data source.

†Will not add up to 157 as more than one type of data collection method was mentioned and more than one type of illicit tobacco was mentioned in many of the articles or sometimes TTCs presented their own data; that is, there was not always a third-party involved in the creation of the data.

‡Other methodology includes TTC funded surveys of retailers, police officers and other interested parties’ opinions on the scale of illicit tobacco and data provided by tobacco companies and industry data of unknown methodology.

§Will not add up to 157 as only 96 articles mentioned a Government agency.

BAT, British American Tobacco; EPSs, empty-pack surveys; HMRC, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs; IMT, Imperial Tobacco; JTI, Japan Tobacco International; NUKDP, non-UK duty paid; PMI, Philip Morris International; TTCs, transnational tobacco companies; UTPs, undercover test purchases.