Health Bill

I welcome the Bill. My constituency suffers from grave multi-deprivation, and in the most deprived wards life expectancy is five to six years lower than the national average—so anything that we can do to bring about health improvements is extremely welcome. I particularly welcome part 2 of the Bill, because Lewisham hospital in my constituency has had a serious problem with MRSA. The Conservative party, in its election campaign, asked sarcastically:"““I mean, how difficult is it to keep a hospital clean?””" In my experience, it is extremely difficult. A hospital can have floors so clean that one can eat off them and still have MRSA. There is a huge need to introduce a new raft of measures, many of which are being pioneered at Lewisham hospital as part of a campaign waged by the Deptford Action Group for the Elderly led by Harry Heyward, me and others to get MRSA rates down. I am delighted to say that rates are now going down. We need to take account of the fact that one in 10 people are found to be already infected in hospital pre-entry testing, and of those who are infected, 40 per cent. come from nursing homes. The wide range of measures that the hospital has introduced require a constant battle—a battle to keep infection control regimes in place, maintain the vigilance of health care staff and get the co-operation of visitors. I therefore very much support the proposal for a statutory code of practice and its associated protocols. I am also pleased to note that while the Bill does not cover care homes, the Government have expressed their intention to apply similar measures to cover such bodies. My welcome for part 1 of the Bill, however, is not as enthusiastic. When I was growing up in south Wales, I did not know anyone who did not smoke. I started smoking at the age of 14. Fortunately, I did not get addicted, and when I learned the health messages I gave up, as did the rest of my family, with the exception of my father. He was a man who worked in a factory but came home every day to his garden. He got plenty of exercise, was never overweight and had the most healthy diet, having grown his own fruit and vegetables. He died when he was just a few years older than I am today, of an entirely preventable smoking-related disease. Today, thousands of my constituents face the same chronic illnesses and eventual premature death as a result of their smoking habit. Twenty-seven per cent. of the people of Lewisham smoke—thankfully, it is no longer the majority that it was in the borough as a whole. As we have heard from others, the incidence is higher in the most deprived communities. Alarmingly, the highest incidence of smoking in my population is among those between the ages of 16 and 34. Interestingly, twice as many white people as black people smoke, and substantially more women smoke. As is the case everywhere, more manual workers smoke. My primary care trust has made huge efforts on smoking cessation and will continue to do so. It can deal with but a few thousand people each year, however, and the problem is so much greater than that. That is why it supports a complete ban on smoking in workplaces. The toll of deaths from entirely preventable smoking-related disease is a scandal. In London as a whole, there are more than 10,000 such deaths each year—that is one death every hour in this city, and 120 hospital admissions every day, at a cost of £105 million to the NHS per annum. As others have said, we have known of the hazards of smoking for a very long time. It is gratifying that the majority of smokers now want to give up because of those messages. Our willingness to protect others from the effects of second-hand smoking, has been much slower to gain public approval. When I entered the House in 1987, at the first meeting with the Whips—who were less kind, of course, than the Whips today—I asked whether it would be possible to have a non-smoking office. They looked at me askance and said that they I would be jolly lucky—they did not use those words exactly—to get an office at all. A decade later, one of my colleagues, Anne Campbell, who was suffering from asthma, was heard to protest one day that we should not have smoking in our dining rooms. She attracted a huge amount of hostility. Many of us have had to fight hard to introduce the sensible and basic no smoking measures that we have in this place today. How much more difficult will it be in those areas where establishments are supposed to be non-food bars, bars that serve a bit of food, bars without smoke around the bar, or bars with a bit of smoke at the back of the room? It will be extremely difficult, and the Bill as drafted is unworkable. One of the most telling statistics that many of us have received came in a briefing from the Trades Union Congress, which compared the 235 deaths at work from accidents with the estimated 700 deaths of non-smokers from second-hand smoking. In the case of accidents, the first thing that we ask is, ““Could this accident have been prevented?”” Well, smoking can be prevented. The second question that we usually ask is, ““Was the employer negligent?”” It is my view that, in future, any employer who exposes his or her workers to second-hand smoking will indeed be negligent. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State stressed the limited nature of the exemptions in the Bill. She also stated her passion for legislating for public health. Therein lies a contradiction. We cannot legislate to protect the majority of people and choose not to protect a minority, however small. We will also ill serve those customers who might wish to be protected in continuing to go to the non-food pub that is their local and that they would like to use in the same way as everyone else. As local consultations and other hon. Members have indicated, it is also clear that a proportion of those pubs that currently serve minimal food will cease to do so in future and become smoking pubs. We want them to keep offering food, not to give it up, because giving it up will exacerbate the difficulties that we have with our drinking culture. For all those reasons, I and many Members will seek every opportunity to remove exemptions for licensed premises and private clubs from the Bill, and to establish a total ban that will protect all employees and the public at large and further encourage the many people of this country who are seeking to give up smoking.