Dr Branston:

Thank you for inviting me. My name is Dr Rob Branston, and I am a senior lecturer in business economics at the University of Bath where I am part of the tobacco control research group. My interest in the tobacco industry is on the economic side, so I do research on industry taxation, responses to taxation, profitability, and responses to regulation more generally. That includes work on the illicit tobacco market. In the interests of transparency I should flag that I own 10 shares in Imperial Brands for research purposes. I do not get any financial interest from the company, but owning shares allows me to attend the AGM and ask questions that are useful in my research.