Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, I speak on this occasion in support of the Bill. I am particularly delighted that my noble friend the Minister, an acknowledged expert in his field, is here today to bring such important health and social care measures before this House. The renewal of the National Health Service under this Government continues. I pay tribute to all those who work so tirelessly in the NHS. It is right that the NHS should now seek formally to engage with its patients, staff and the general public to secure the service for generations to come. I also support proper supervision of the pharmaceutical market and cannot fail to support any efforts made to improve adult social care, which for many of us is a subject close to our hearts, as each of us have been touched by caring for relatives. However, I must strike a note of caution and question why Part 3 on tobacco is before us at all. I am a fervent supporter of this Government and believe that we have the leadership that will see us through difficult economic times. I know that we all look forward to an early economic recovery, but I question why we are debating issues today that will not, for sound economic reasons, become effective until 2011 or 2013. I am not a smoker, I hold no brief for the industry and I am not concerned that a legitimate business should be legitimately regulated. However, I am seriously concerned about the economic, social and, indeed, human impact of smuggling and trafficking. That is what causes me to take an interest in Part 3 of the Bill. Noble Lords will be aware of my interest in the most appalling aspect of smuggling—people trafficking. Organised crime uses whatever means it can to fund these vile crimes. Criminals use illicit trade to fund this activity. Tobacco smuggling is, sadly, an important aspect of this trade. If we are to focus on tobacco, it is time to legislate to eliminate the illicit trade. Part 3 of this Bill will adversely affect UK manufacturing businesses. It will endanger the small shops that are the centre of each of our communities and it will fuel the illicit trade, yet it seems that there is no convincing evidence that it will improve public health or stop young people gaining access to tobacco products. Youth access controls have to be carried out by precisely the retailers whom this Bill seeks to punish. That is aside from the increasing number of young people who buy their tobacco from illegal sources, sometimes unwittingly buying a counterfeit product. I am not convinced that the Government have the evidence base to act or that they have considered all the options. I note that there were three options in the original consultation paper on tobacco control, yet there are only two in the published impact assessment. Why has the second option of restrictions rather than a ban been discontinued? We are too quick to ban things before considering how restrictions might achieve the desired effect without the unintended consequences. If there is evidence that advertising and promotion of tobacco products at the point of sale are so attractive to youth that they are a public health menace, we have a duty to act now, but even then we should always look to the easiest legislative route. I fear from everything that I have read about this issue and from all that I have heard today that the case for the ban of the display of tobacco products has not been made. I fear that the consequences of this proposal will be the loss of small shops and an increase in the already large illicit market for tobacco products, with no proven health benefits. We have a duty to analyse the evidence and on that basis to reach sound conclusions. I do not believe that the evidence is there and I feel that we are sending the wrong message to the country by adding even more burdens on small shop keepers. Why do we seek to allow the Secretary of State to ban something now, when the Government have already acknowledged that this should not become fully effective until 2013? In the interests of good government and given the lack of evidence and clearly difficult economic consequences, I believe that we should remove Part 3 from the Bill. I suspect that the Government have existing powers under the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002 to ban display. If they can demonstrate that this constitutes advertising in shops, there is no need to introduce yet more powers in this Bill. I have been contacted, as I suspect have many noble Lords, by many different interest groups on this Bill, some seeking to suggest amendments and even to go further by amending the Bill to ban branding altogether. I warn noble Lords that that would be a further step on to dangerous ground. British brands are an exceptionally important part of our economy and any move to destroy them in any field must be resisted. This House should defend British intellectual property, not consider ways in which to undermine or destroy it. We need to regulate legitimate businesses in a fair and appropriate manner. Evidence must guide the formation of policy. We cannot ignore the already burgeoning illicit market and we must not do anything that causes it to grow. Indeed, we should redouble our efforts to seize illicit products and prosecute those who perpetrate this trade. We should not be considering ways to punish those who, every day, have to make decisions about the age of their customers and effectively police existing laws. We should be considering means by which to help them, to enforce the law and to do all that we can to reduce youth smoking. The measures in the Bill do not seem to me to do that.