Anti-smoking campiagners have welcomed the government review of cigarette packaging that could seen them sold in plain packets.

Public Health Minister Jane Ellison announced today that the eminent paediatrician Sir Cyril Chantler has been asked to carry out a rapid review of the evidence, which will be completed by March.

At the same time, changes will be made to the Children and Families Bill currently going through Parliament so that a ban on branded cigarette packets can be imposed "without delay" if the review concludes it is the right course.

A spokesman for Smokefree South West said: “We are absolutely delighted that the Government has called for a review of the evidence around plain, standardised packaging to report in March.

"Asking an independent body to take a look at and survey the evidence is a good decision, and we are pleased that it will be carried out with the necessary speed to ensure that it reports early in the Spring.

“Smoking is the single biggest cause of preventable ill health, health inequalities and early deaths in our country.

"Two thirds of people start smoking when they're children and a chief aim of introducing plain standardised packs is to make tobacco less alluring to young people.

“This legislation was introduced in Australia a year ago this Sunday so we now have an opportunity to analyse its impact on smoking rates.

"This issue is very important to people in the South West.

“During a government consultation between April and August 2012, more than 200,000 people from across England signed up to support a move towards standardised plain packaging, many from the South West.”

In the Commons, Ms Ellison said the Government had ordered the review in response to evidence emerging from Australia which last year became the first country to introduce plain packaging.

But for Labour, shadow health minister Luciana Berger said ministers had been forced to act by the prospect of a "humiliating" defeat in the House of Lords on an amendment to the Children and Families Bill tabled by a cross-party group of peers.

"Only a Government as shambolic as this one could now be u-turning on a u-turn. The minister says we need another review but the Government have already had a review and the evidence is clear for all to see," she said.

"Standardised packaging makes cigarettes less attractive to young people. We should be legislating now, not delaying."

Ms Ellison insisted that the Government had made clear last July that it was simply taking a "pause", following a public consultation in 2012, to consider the evidence from Australia.

At the time the announcement was widely seen as killing off any prospect of legislation before the election in 2015, with critics blaming the Tories' controversial election strategist, Lynton Crosby.

There was an outcry when it later emerged that his firm, CrosbyTextor had been advising Philip Morris Ltd as it lobbied the Government against plain packaging.

Ms Ellison said that there would be no new public consultation and that Sir Cyril's review would have access to the submissions made in the course of last year's consultation.

"We will introduce standardised tobacco packaging if, following the review and consideration of the wider issues raised, we are satisfied there are sufficient grounds to proceed," she said.

We have to do this in a measured step-by-step way to make sure that when and if a decision is made it is robust and will withdraw all the inevitable challenges that might come its way."