Health Bill

My Lords, in so far as I have any leverage with that committee, I should be glad to do so. I am not sure whether I am the best person to urge that course, but it is one that I would endorse wholeheartedly. It is not simply the increased risk of lung cancer. It is also the significant increase in the risk of coronary heart disease from quite modest exposure to second-hand smoke. In other words, there is a non-linear relationship between dose and risk. Once one accepts the evidence—it is endorsed by every reputable medical body around the world—one has to accept that it is no longer a nuisance issue; it is a public health issue. If it is a public health issue, it is obvious that there is no acceptable halfway house. The Government’s manifesto policy to exempt some pubs and bars, but not others, made no sense whatever. The risks from smoke are the same, whether the pub you are in does or does not serve food. In fact, it is worse than that because the areas of the country where the largest number of non-food pubs are to be found are those where there are already poorer than average levels of health. That is why the Chief Medical Officer stated that a partial ban was worse than no ban at all. That is also why I am so critical of the Government. For many months, they led up us a blind alley that was very obviously a blind alley and one that would actually have worsened health inequalities. At the last general election, my own party was quite clear: we wanted to bring about a situation in which non-smokers in enclosed public places and at work should not be exposed to second-hand smoke. We would have done that by a different route—by voluntary self regulation and by promulgating a beefed-up health and safety at work policy. The end in view was broader than under the Government’s previous policy. However, that is now past. Now that a legislative solution is in prospect, we need to make sure that its full implications are debated in a constructive spirit and understood. That, I suggest, will be our task in relation to this and other issues in the Bill when we reach Committee stage to which I, for one, look forward.