Health Bill

I am much obliged to the noble Lord, Lord Pendry, for his very helpful intervention. It is one thing for an Independent Labour Member of this Committee to say that, but when it comes from the noble Lord, Lord Pendry, that adds enormous weight to what I have already said, and I thank him for it. I turn again to the amendment. Our concern is that what constitutes a private house should be stated in the Bill. When the regulations come to be debated in both Houses, there is no possibility, as every Member of this Committee knows, to amend them. Individual freedom would be at stake if people were restricted from smoking in their own home. That is why the definition of one’s own home should be in the Bill. There are some interesting questions to be asked. How far does a person’s right to smoke go? As the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, said, what happens if someone wants an electrician or the gasman to repair the heating? If the place smells of smoke, will the engineer say, ““This is a smoking place and it is against the law for me to go in””? What about old people who need nursing attention and help from the social services? Will they be denied those services because the health visitor and the district nurse feel that it is a smoking place and that they should not be subject to second-hand smoke during their work? How far does that go? Those are some of the problems that we need to deal with. What about a person who is smoking, has a heart attack and needs medical attention? Will the paramedics be prevented from going into the house because there is a cigarette smoking in the ashtray? This is an important matter, and the Committee should take it very seriously. Then there is the question of ““vehicle””, which is not defined as it should be. What is a private vehicle? Is it a private vehicle only when the owner is driving? What if he is carrying passengers? Perhaps he is sharing his vehicle with someone to go up to London or somewhere else during commuter times. What is the position of that person? Will his passengers be able to say to him, ““I’m sorry but you mustn’t smoke, because we’re in the car; the law says that we shouldn’t be in the car while you’re smoking””? That is another definition that we need to get right. What about smoking in lorries? What about these large articulated lorries, which pound up and down our motorways and through our towns? The people who will enforce this legislation are not the police, as I understand it, but the local authorities and environmental health inspectors. Exactly how will they police the ban on heavy goods vehicles on motorways or any goods vehicles in the town? How will it be done? The police, at the moment, are completely unable to enforce the ban on using mobile phones. Anyone who travels up and down the motorway knows perfectly well that one in two drivers is using a mobile phone, yet the police can do nothing about it. What about the foreign lorry drivers who infest our roads at the present time? Will they be liable?