Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, I believe that there are some good aspirations and proposals in Parts 1 and 2 of the Bill to which I can give my cautious support. However, I have some concerns over quality accounts which, I believe, will involve the setting up of new management lines within each trust. I agree with other noble Lords that this could become just another box-filling exercise without any meaningful benefit. I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Emerton, who was concerned that care and compassion does not appear to be included in the assessment exercise. Before moving to Part 3, I should declare my interest as an occasional cigarette and cigar smoker and a member of the Lords and Commons Cigar and Pipe Smokers Club—unpaid. It may come, therefore, as no surprise when I say that Part 3 is the point at which I begin to despair. My noble friend Lady Knight made an excellent speech on this subject—indeed, it was a speech I wish I could have made—and I fear that there may be some repetition in what I say. There comes a time when a line needs to be drawn in the sand beyond which the Government’s ever more encroaching nanny state should not be allowed to pass. That time is now. Of course we all know that smoking is not good for you and I agree that children under the age of 16 should not be encouraged to purchase tobacco products, but I am as certain as I can be that the proposals in the Bill are not the right way to achieve that. After all, have we not already opened children’s eyes far more to smoking by banning its use indoors in all public places? You now see far more adults smoking in the streets because of the ban—and where do children play? In the streets and in open spaces. Therefore to make it illegal to have so-called gantry displays of tobacco products in retail premises will have a negligible impact on children’s awareness of smoking. What will this banning of displays do to help make us all good citizens? Absolutely nothing. It will simply encourage the trade in illegally imported products, as the noble Baroness, Lady Golding, said. This is already reducing the Government’s tax take by some £4 billion a year. We should also consider the hard pressed businessmen who run corner shops and village shops. We already know that village pubs and post offices are under threat, with 34 pubs closing each week at the last count. Not only will the proposals in the Bill put further strain on these shopkeepers, who derive some 35 per cent of their turnover from the sale of tobacco products, but it will also put an even greater temptation in their way to sell illegally imported products on which they can achieve a far higher profit margin. There is also the question of health and safety at work. Shopkeepers will be forced to bury their heads under the counter or search behind some screen or Venetian blind, which they will have to open and shut like some Punch and Judy show, to obtain products which the purchaser quite legally wishes to buy. Not only will this undoubtedly lead to repetitive strain injuries and back problems, the burden of which will fall on the National Health Service, but it will also make these shopkeepers vulnerable targets to thieves and criminals, who will be tempted to shoplift or to have a go at the tills in shops. It will leave them much more vulnerable to this kind of attack and to pretend this is not the case is nonsense. Sadly, we all know that in a recession or depression the incidence of this kind of petty crime increases. I hear siren voices on the government Front Bench saying that the Bill will not come into effect until, I think, 2013. Perhaps by then we shall be back in a benign period of economic growth, a hope devoutly to be wished. However, in reality, it does not matter when these regulations come into effect—the result will be the same. I believe that the Government are guilty of schizophrenia on this issue. As has already been said, tobacco is a legal product. The Government receive around £10 billion per annum from the industry; it is a substantial contributor to the public coffers. Presumably the money is much needed in these straitened times when hundreds of billions of pounds are going out to shore up our financial institutions. By enacting the legislation, the Government will guarantee for themselves reduced revenue and an increase in unlawful behaviour, be it through illegal imports or something worse. It will serve only to increase the interest of the young in tobacco products. Taking them off display and making shopkeepers furtively scrabble about under their counters will elevate cigarettes to a kind of banned substance and, as we all know, this will only increase certain people’s determination to get hold of some. My advice to the Government is to remove Part 3 from the Bill. Sadly, I am sure that this will not happen, so I say to noble Lords of a like mind that we will have to gird ourselves up for the later stages of the Bill.