Cigarette laws are changing later this month: here's what you need to know

If you’re a smoker, here’s what the new rules will mean for you.

What’s happening?

From May 21, all packaging will be plain and every pack of cigarettes will be a shade of green.

It will no longer be possible to buy smaller packs of cigarettes.

You won’t be able to buy bags of rolling tobacco weighing less than 30g.

The cheapest pack of cigarettes on sale will cost £8.82.

Menthol cigarettes are also being phased out along with fruit, candy, spice, herb, alcohol and vanilla flavoured tobacco – but they won’t be banned until May 2020.

The new laws actually came into effect last May but shops were given a year to sell off their old stock.

Why will the packaging be green?

The shade, opaque couche to be exact, was labelled the world’s ugliest colour after Australian researchers were hired to find the least appealing advertising for their country’s plain packaging rules.

What effect will it have?

Cancer Research UK has said the plain cigarette packaging could lead to more than quarter of a million smokers giving up the habit.

Standardised packs could reduce the appeal of tobacco and increase the number of attempts made to quit, experts from the Cochrane Review said.

The review looked at 51 studies involving around 800,000 people on the impact of removing branding from tobacco.

Among the studies looked at by the Cochrane Review was one from Australia - where laws have been in place outlawing branded cigarette packets since 2012 - which showed a 0.5% drop in smoking prevalence among participants one year after new rules were introduced.

George Butterworth, the charity's tobacco policy manager, said: "Smoking kills 100,000 people in the UK every year, so we support any effective measure which can help reduce this devastating impact. The evidence shows that standardised packaging works."

Cochrane lead author Professor Ann McNeill from King's College London said: "Evaluating the impact of standardised packaging on smoking behaviour is difficult to do, but the evidence available to us, whilst limited at this time, indicates that standardised packaging may reduce smoking prevalence.

"These findings are supported by evidence from a variety of other studies that have shown that standardised packaging reduces the promotional appeal of tobacco packs."