The Cancer Council of Victoria will fight a freedom of information request by a big tobacco company to access information from classroom surveys about young people's attitudes towards smoking.

British American Tobacco has applied to access data collected by the Cancer Council from school students covering a range of issues, including where they get their cigarettes from, when they started smoking and how they feel about plain packaging.

The information was collected at schools around the state from a survey of students aged between 12 and 17.

The Cancer Council's Todd Harper said the organisation was concerned the information could be misused.

"The response of children to the initiative of plain packaging is a particularly important and rich source of information for tobacco companies," he said.

"We are doing what we can to ensure that the information that has been collected from school students does remain confidential."

Mr Harper said the council had gathered about three decades' worth of data from students about their attitudes towards tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use.

British American Tobacco said it was seeking the data to find out if plain packaging was having an impact on its product.

It said it would not be seeking any personal data or information about children.

"It is illegal to sell tobacco to children and tobacco advertising has been banned for decades," the company said in a statement.

"Children are not, and will never be, our audience and we have always made this clear."

Mark Connell from British American Tobacco told the ABC it was "more than reasonable" to have all data on the effect of plain packaging made public, especially in the lead-up to the Government's review of the policy.

"The question we must ask today is why is the [Cancer Council] going to so much trouble to keep publicly funded research out of the public domain," he said.

"Given the importance the [council] and other public health stakeholders place on youth smoking prevention, surely the effectiveness of the world's first plain packaging policy on this issue should be made public.

"If this is the case, taxpayers and parents deserve to know why not."

Tobacco company's bid 'not for altruistic purposes'

Both the federal and Victorian governments were critical of the move made by British American Tobacco.

Federal Assistant Minister for Health Fiona Nash said she would be "appalled" if tobacco companies obtained research on young people to increase their sales to children.

Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy said the Andrews Government was willing to examine current legislation to see if changes were needed to prevent any future access to the data.

"I can't envisage the circumstances in which it is in the public interest for this data to be released, but I do respect the court process," she said.

"I'm not interested in helping tobacco companies get access as to how to market their products.

"Let's not kid ourselves. They're not after this information for altruistic purposes.

"If VCAT determines that this data should be made accessible to a tobacco company then the Government will obviously look at the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act and make sure we use any regulatory power that we have available to us."

A date is yet to be set for the matter before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.