Jeffries Briginshaw

Jeffries Briginshaw is the Founder and CEO of Transatlantic Business Britain (TBB), and a Partner at Regulatory & Trade at Firehouse Communications, a “leading UK based reputation management consultancy”. According to TBB’s website, Briginshaw “provides strategic and technical advice to clients including multinational and trade associations on policy, regulatory, market entry, FDI and trade policy challenges and opportunities”.¹²

Briginshaw is a former CEO of the British-American Business Council and British-American Business (BAB).¹ Before joining BAB in 2012, Briginshaw worked as EU Director for the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) in Brussels from 2007.³

Relationship with the Tobacco Industry

Before working at the TABD, Briginshaw held a number of positions at British American Tobacco (BAT) between 1993 and 2007, including:⁴

• Head of Political and Regulatory Affairs (2004-2007)
• Head of Corporate Affairs, Latin America and Caribbean (2001-2004)
• Corporate Affairs Counsel (1999-2001)
• Litigation Counsel, Latin America and Caribbean (1998-1999)
• Assistant General Counsel, Latin America and Caribbean (1996-1998)
• Commercial Counsel (1994-1996)
• Trademark Counsel (1993-1994)

Briginshaw also worked at the law firm Lovells, from 1990 to 1993, in Intellectual Property alongside David Latham, an Intellectual Property Solicitor and BAT legal advisor.³⁵

While Briginshaw was Head of Political and Regulatory Affairs at BAT (from 2004 to 2007) he also served on the Transatlantic Business Dialogue Policy Committee on behalf of BAT. In 2008, TABD made a submission to the plain packaging consultation.⁶ Briginshaw signed the group’s response giving a well-used tobacco industry argument:

 “We would be concerned that regulating for plain packaging of cigarettes could significantly undermine the effectiveness of valid trade marks, encourage counterfeiting and weaken consumer confidence in brands as a badge of identity”.⁵

Action on Smoking and Health noted in a report on the consultation:

“BAT is listed as one of five UK members of the TABD group. Nowhere in the TABD consultation response were the links between the group and BAT disclosed although BAT’s membership is mentioned on the TABD group website.”⁵

TobaccoTactics Resources

·      British American Tobacco

Relevant Links

·      Firehouse Communications

·      Transatlantic Business Britain (TBB)

TCRG Research

• ‘It will harm business and increase illicit trade’: an evaluation of the relevance, quality and transparency of evidence submitted by transnational tobacco companies to the UK consultation on standardised packaging 2012, K. Evans-Reeves, J. Hatchard, A. Gilmore, 2015, Tobacco Control, 24(e2), e168-e177, doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2014-051930
• International trade law, plain packaging and tobacco industry political activity: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, G. Fooks, A. Gilmore, 2014, Tobacco Control, 23(1), e1, doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2012-050869
• A critical evaluation of the volume, relevance and quality of evidence submitted by the tobacco industry to oppose standardised packaging of tobacco products, J. Hatchard, G. Fooks, K. Evans-Reeves, S. Ulucanlar, A. Gilmore, 2014, BMJ Open 4(2), e003757, doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003757
• Representation and Misrepresentation of Scientific Evidence in Contemporary Tobacco Regulation: A Review of Tobacco Industry Submissions to the UK Government Consultation on Standardised Packaging, S. Ulucanlar, G. Fooks, J. Hatchard, A. Gilmore, 2014, PLOS Medicine, 11(3), e1001629, doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001629
• How do corporations use evidence in public health policy making? The case of standardised tobacco packaging, J Hatchard, K. Evans-Reeves, S. Ulucanlar, G. Fooks, A. Gilmore, 2013, The Lancet, 382(s3), S42, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62467-8

For a comprehensive list of all TCRG publications, including TCRG research that evaluates the impact of public health policy, go to TCRG publications.