Health Bill

I thank the Minister for that explanation. He would do better to accept my amendment because it would bring about certainty. It would warn people—in particular, local authorities—what their duties would be. As I said earlier, it would also enable Parliament to make a decision on known facts rather than on hypotheses. It is still a hypothetical system for so long as it is not on the face of the Bill. I believe that very strongly. I think we have got somewhere, because apparently the Health and Safety Executive has said that it wants nothing to do with enforcing the provisions of the Bill. At least we now know that one authority will not be involved in enforcement, and that has been very helpful indeed. The Minister said that primary legislation should be flexible. That is exactly what Henry VIII thought; it enabled him to do exactly as he pleased. Some of us do not believe that that is how Parliament should operate. We believe that primary legislation should state exactly what will happen, when it will happen and the effect that it should have. All I am trying to do in the amendment is to get that certainty, so that people know exactly where they are going. I want to speak on behalf of the poor publican, who, it now seems, is going to be an enforcement officer as well. The Minister is relying on the publican’s duty, as he puts it, to deal with people who light up in his pub; but that is an extremely difficult thing for a publican to do. We already know how difficult it is for a publican to moderate the number of drinks that a person may have. They find great difficulty in seeing to it that people do not get drunk and have fights, stab people to death and then go home and beat up their wives and children. How on earth they will be able to enforce someone lighting up a cigarette without causing a lot of trouble I simply do not know.