Health Bill

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his intervention, and I hope to be at the launch of children’s cancer awareness month tomorrow. I am also aware of his point about specialist tobacconists. I understand that they have made those points to the Government, but have had no clear answer. I hope that we shall be able to explore the matter further. I shall come to the other issues in the Bill shortly, but I want to stay with smoking for a moment. I have talked about all the risks involved, but what has been the response to these points? Curiously, no one has mentioned the fact that the Government had plenty of advice on how they should respond to these issues. The chief medical officer’s annual report in 2002 made it perfectly clear that he recommended a comprehensive ban on smoking in enclosed public places. He believed that that would lead to a 4 per cent. reduction in prevalence, from 27 per cent. to 23 per cent., which would represent a substantially greater impact on prevalence than anything that the Government anticipate from their own proposals. How are other people responding to the risks? The Scottish Parliament—whether I agree with it or not—says that, from April next year, it wants a comprehensive ban on smoking in enclosed public places. As the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) pointed out, the Welsh Assembly wants to use the Bill to deliver a comprehensive ban. Speaking about Northern Ireland, the Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the hon. Member for St. Helens, South (Mr. Woodward) has said that"““no-one has a right to subject colleagues and workmates to the dangers and hazards of second-hand smoke and passive smoking. No-one has a right to subject members of the public who do not smoke to those same dangers in enclosed public spaces.””" Responsibility on this matter is not devolved but held here in Westminster, and that Minister has decided that the only proper course of action would be a comprehensive ban.