Health Bill

I repeat what I said, which is that I will stick to the arguments in the amendment, not extraneous arguments raised by Members of the Committee that are outside the terms of the amendment. I am reinforced in that view by the contribution from the noble Lord, Lord Walton of Detchant, which was extremely helpful on that point. A number of issues have been raised. I shall say just once for the record, on the issue of votes and scrutiny, that in the other place the Bill received consideration in seven sittings on smoking and 12 in total. The argument that it has not been scrutinised in the other place is erroneous, and we should bear that in mind as we conduct our proceedings. After those sittings, and after hearing all the arguments, 47 Conservatives voted for a complete ban. That is nothing whatsoever to do with the Labour Party manifesto. Just to correct the record, my noble friend Lord Faulkner may not have got things quite right on a free vote. Not all votes will be free. The Whips agreed that if amendments were tabled on the same issues on which the Commons had a free vote, such as pubs and clubs, there would be a free vote in the Lords. That is the formal position, if I may put that on the record. Turning now to the amendments themselves, I begin by reassuring noble Lords that the Bill is about protecting people from exposure to second-hand smoke in enclosed and substantially enclosed public places and workplaces. We have no intention of making people’s private spaces smoke-free. For example, private homes are not covered by the Bill where they are not also workplaces, so there will be no regulations in relation to these premises as they are not covered by the Bill. Those same considerations apply to stately homes, which may reassure the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, although I have to confess that my knowledge of stately homes is a bit limited. I shall take the case of private dwellings first. The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee noted that the power in Clause 4 to designate additional smoke-free places could, potentially, be used to prohibit smoking in domestic premises. In my response to the committee, I made it clear that the Government will implement smoke-free legislation in line with human rights requirements, including the right to respect for private life in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. That approach is consistent with the example of an exemption from the requirement to be smoke-free that we have given in Clause 3(2). That example refers to enclosed work and public premises being exempt where they are a person’s home or a place where a person is living permanently or temporarily. Furthermore, the power in Clause 4 to designate additional smoke-free places will be tightly regulated and subject to an affirmative resolution procedure, so those regulations will be subject to further debate in Parliament. To respond to the point raised by the noble Lord, Lord Geddes, on regulations, we have said that we will make those draft regulations available as soon as possible, but we have to discuss them in detail with all the people affected by them. That is the process we are engaged in. In the case of private vehicles, the Government have clearly undertaken that private vehicles will be exempted from the requirement to be smoke-free. Clause 5(2)(d) specifically refers to the power to make exemptions in regulations relating to smoke-free vehicles. Vehicles such as rental cars and rental vans for private use will also be exempted. My honourable friend the Minister for Public Health in another place made those points clear during the passage of the Bill. I acknowledge that the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee noted that the powers in Clause 5 could, potentially, be used to extend the smoke-free legislation to private vehicles. As such, it recommended that regulations under the clause should be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. We have accepted that recommendation and I have tabled a government amendment to that effect, which we will consider later in Committee. However, I hope that this helps to reassure noble Lords that we intend to honour our commitment to exempt private vehicles; if government Amendment No. 102 is passed, noble Lords will have the opportunity to hold us to account on this. I hope that noble Lords will see fit to withdraw or not move their amendments in the light of these reassurances. Amendments Nos. 105 to 108 are concerned with delaying the implementation date of smoke-free legislation. The Government are committed to implementing such legislation during the summer of next year for all premises and vehicles that are to be smoke-free under the Bill. We have given that commitment and I reassure the Committee that the Bill in the amended state in which it has come here represents government policy. Given the amendments made to the Bill in the other place with regard to excluding exemptions for licensed premises or membership clubs, it is expected that the legislation will now be much easier to implement for all, given that virtually all enclosed public places and workplaces will be required to be smoke-free. That means that no additional time should be required for licensed premises to prepare to become smoke-free as all business premises will need to comply with the legislation equally, regardless of what the business does or the service it provides. Public support for smoke-free legislation has strengthened rapidly, especially since the publication of the Choosing Health White Paper in 2004. Evidence of quickly shifting public opinion on smoke-free enclosed public places and workplaces came with the publication of an opinion poll commissioned by Cancer Research UK and the public health charity Action on Smoking and Health, and conducted in December last year. The poll found that across the United Kingdom over seven out of 10 respondents supported proposals to make all workplaces, including all pubs and restaurants, completely smoke-free. That strengthening public support was one of the reasons why the Government facilitated a free vote during the Report stage of the Health Bill in the other place on the extent of exemptions from smoke-free legislation.