Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

The amendments that we have more problems supporting are those that suggest that the ban should stay in place for only three months. The ban is to be imposed only after persistent offences and in a way that is very clear for members of the public, but how are the public to know that a ban has been imposed? I see nothing in the Bill about notices having to be issued. Will it just be left to the shopkeeper to say that a ban is in place? Three months is a difficult period, because it is just about long enough for the public to know that there is a ban before the shop is able to sell tobacco again. If the shopkeeper persists and offends again, there will be another three-month ban. The Government are more correct here in going for a more understandable period. I hear what the noble Lord, Lord Henley, says: it will be a huge burden on shopkeepers who fall foul of the law, albeit that they have knowingly transgressed that law, as will be the level of fine, which we shall discuss shortly. I want to check how the Government arrived at that tariff for this offence. In legislating about this, we are talking about children, but there is still a bit of a schizophrenic attitude in society in general—I am not suggesting that it is here this afternoon. The view is that smoking is very bad but, on the other hand, the Treasury and the shopkeeper must still be allowed to profit from it. Adults are still allowed to smoke if they want. I think that we are half way through an evolutionary process and it is right that we should take some time over it. I emphasise the need for more money to be spent on education, so that the children do not go to the shops in the first place. That is where local authorities come in. Enforcement will come down to LACORS. Trading standards officers are a bunch of people for whom I have tremendous admiration. They have a pretty unenviable job. Usually, they tread a fine line in trying to enforce things and doing so with the consent of the community, whether on the sale of tobacco or on other things. In the regulation of markets, it is difficult to keep the retailers onside. In this case, education must be the front line and I would expect local authorities to take that to heart. These measures will always be a last resort.