Health Bill [HL]

Clause 18: Prohibition of advertising: exclusion for specialist tobacconists Debate on whether Clause 18 should stand part of the Bill. We move now to Part 3, the provisions relating to tobacco control, and I raise a question in relation to Clause 18. The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002 included an explicit exemption for specialist tobacconists from the legislation banning advertising. It did so subject to three conditions: that the advertisement had to be inside or fixed to the outside of the premises; that it could not be for cigarettes or hand-rolling tobacco; and it had to comply with regulations governing advertising in specialist tobacconists. Clause 18 removes this explicit exemption by giving the Secretary of State the power to decide whether the exemption should remain. In other words, it removes the existing certainty for specialist tobacconists under the 2002 Act. Questions need to be asked about why the explicit exemption currently in place needs to be removed and why the existing power to make regulations under the 2002 Act is insufficient. The Explanatory Notes shed no light on these issues.