Health Bill [HL]

To answer the noble Lord, we are in a situation where Parliament is clearly not going to outlaw tobacco. Given that that is the case, any measures to restrict what is still a legal product have to be weighed up in terms of the evidence for and against them. I make no apology for bringing the affairs of small traders into this. It is germane that we look at the effect that this measure would have on small businesses, and the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, was right to emphasise the points that he did. Unless Parliament is going to ban tobacco—let us have a debate about that if we want to—we have to have this kind of discussion.