Health Bill

Unlike the noble Earl, Lord Howe, I am pleased that this group of amendments dealing with the commencement date is being debated at the beginning of the Committee stage, because it gives me an opportunity, from these Benches, to put on record that we will be supporting the Government broadly in sticking to the text of the existing Bill. We think that the Bill is perfectly adequately drafted. There may be some bits at the edges which can be improved but, broadly, we believe that the vote on the Bill in the other place should be definitive. We make an exception, however, by being more specific in our Amendment No. 107 about a convenient moment to bring the Bill into force. The Government have not indicated a date in any great detail—they have simply indicated summer 2007 as the time the Act might come into effect—but we believe that it would be perfectly possible for the pub trade, as it was described by the noble Earl, Lord Howe, to comply with the requirements of the Act in time for no-smoking day on 14 March 2007. We believe that this would have advantages. It could be argued that the sooner the date is clearly set by the Government, and the longer we have for publicising the requirements and the longer the lead-in, the more effective the implementation of the Bill will be. We also believe that all the attendant publicity involved with no-smoking day will give a focus to the implementation of the Bill. A great deal of advertising and publicity surrounds no-smoking day, particularly about the various ways in which people can give up smoking. That would make it a very convenient time—we believe that it would be the right time—to bring the Act into effect. It is worth reminding ourselves of why we need the Bill on a day when ASH—the Action on Smoking and Health UK organisation—has published the most recent figures, which show that in 2004 some 10 million people were exposed to smoking in the workplace. The Bill is needed because we know that an average of 600 people, we believe, die as a result of that exposure in the workplace.