Health Bill

In reply to the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, I wish that my teaching on political theory had had a better effect. I say to the noble Lord that he has no right to smoke-free air unless he can show that the denial of smoke-free air damages him. Even if he can show that, he does not have an absolute right because others have a right to smoke. The question is one of a balance between the two. If the right to smoke can be preserved consistently with the noble Lord’s right to a smoke-free environment, then that is the balance that has to be struck. You have no absolute right to anything. It has to be consistent with harms that are being done to you or harms that you are doing to other people.