Health Bill [HL]

This has been an interesting and informative debate. I shall approach it in two major parts. The first is to talk about strategy and evaluation; the other is to talk about the Government’s work against the illicit tobacco trade. Both Amendments 104 and 170A would create a duty on the Secretary of State to publish a comprehensive tobacco strategy, but they vary in the details that they would require. Amendment 104 would insert a new clause that would place a statutory duty on the Secretary of State to provide a report to Parliament by 2010 on a comprehensive strategy to reduce tobacco usage, including an assessment of efforts to reduce the amount of smuggled tobacco sold in UK shops. Amendment 107A also requires a strategy, but states that it should be published by 21 July this year and that it should include an evaluation programme for the strategy to be updated in the light of new evidence. It would also require the strategy to set various targets. The amendments highlight an important point. I would not want the Committee to think that the new provisions for tobacco control introduced by the Bill are the whole story. The provisions are just one part of an overall government strategy to reduce the health harms from smoking. The Committee will know that last year we published our Consultation on the Future of Tobacco Control, a public consultation that received nearly 100,000 responses. The report of that consultation exercise was published in December. We made it clear that consultation was the first step towards developing a new national tobacco control strategy, and I am sure the Committee will be pleased to learn that I can confirm that the Government intend to publish a comprehensive strategy on the future of tobacco control before 2010—in fact, it will be issued later this year. However, I would not want to commit in legislation that the new strategy be published by 21 July, as we need to leave adequate time for the strategy to be developed to take account of Parliament’s decisions regarding the tobacco proposals in this Health Bill, for example, and to take on board comments made during the course of our debates—for example, in the past hour of our discussion. When the strategy is published, the Secretary of State will make a Statement in the other place and copies will be placed in the House Libraries. Before I address the illegal tobacco trade, perhaps I may respond to a few of the issues on the government strategy and points raised by noble Lords about stopping smoking. The noble Baroness, Lady O'Cathain, raised the NHS Stop Smoking Services. I agree that local NHS Stop Smoking Services provide excellent support to smokers in communities across the country. Recently, England was assessed as having one of the best smoking-cessation services in the world. Not only is nicotine replacement available on prescription from the NHS but most formats can be bought from shops, including supermarkets. I am not sure whether we have a 24-hour helpline, but I intend to find out whether we do. We would certainly want to follow that example. I will write to the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, about the detail of his remarks. I know that advice is available for teachers and in schools—it is part of the government strategy for health in schools—but I will make the detail of that available to him and other Members of the Committee. My noble friend Lord Campbell-Savours raised the issue of evidence and support to quit smoking. He is probably aware that progress has been made since he was making his attempts to stop smoking, but I do not doubt that it is a very difficult thing for people to do. If we are all telling our smoking stories, I stopped at the beginning of 1983. My husband and I did it together. It was not an easy thing and I know that if I had one fag, I would be back on 10 or 15 a day. It is an addiction that is not easy to beat. Over the past decade, the Government have delivered a very ambitious programme of tobacco control. We have set up an extensive network of local NHS stop-smoking services in communities across the country and have put high levels of investment into those services, which means that most of them have a fully resourced smoking cessation programme. We are running a marketing and communications programme that reaches out to millions of smokers. That gives them information on how to stop smoking and provides support in quitting. I think that the noble Lord said that there is no point in battering people with this; you have to give them support. I agree with noble Lords—this was mentioned in particular by the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege—that tackling the illicit trade in tobacco will continue to be a vital element of the Government’s strategy. Relaxing the pressure would allow the illegal trade to undermine all the good work that we are doing and the investment that we are making across other areas in an attempt to reduce the prevalence of smoking and help smokers to quit. In particular, the availability of illicit tobacco is a significant factor in perpetuating health inequalities, and that alone makes it a top priority. As noble Lords will be aware, the illicit share of the tobacco market is estimated to be 13 per cent, but more than half of hand-rolled tobacco is estimated to be illicit. That is why reducing the availability of these products is a priority for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the UK Border Agency and, at the retail level, local authority trading standards. We are not, and must not be, complacent. The Government have already made significant progress in reducing the illicit tobacco market. Since the Government’s Tackling Tobacco Smuggling strategy was introduced in 2000, there has been an investment of over £200 million. We have cut the size of the illicit cigarette market share by a third; we have seized more than 14 billion illicit cigarettes and more than 1,000 tonnes of hand-rolling tobacco in the UK and abroad; we have broken up over 370 criminal gangs; we have successfully prosecuted more than 2,000 people; and we have issued over £35million-worth of confiscation orders. Tackling illicit tobacco remains a priority for the Government. In November 2008, we published Tackling Tobacco Smuggling Together, an integrated strategy for HM Revenue and Customs and the new UK Border Agency. I recommend that noble Lords look at this updated strategy to see how ambitious the Government are with regard to reducing the amount of illicit tobacco. The new HMRC/UK Border Agency strategic partnership will be central to the future of the strategy, which is underpinned by these key principles: making it harder for smugglers to source tobacco; disrupting the supply and distribution chain; increasing the risks and reducing the rewards of smuggling; and tackling demand by raising public awareness. Under this partnership, HMRC is committed to strengthening its work with the police, local government and health and business stakeholders to tackle the demand for and supply of illicit tobacco. The Department of Health is working with HMRC to encourage collaboration in the fight against illicit trade, particularly at the local level, and is supporting the development of a new marketing strategy aimed at changing attitudes and behaviour around illicit tobacco. We must recognise that tobacco smuggling is a global problem requiring global solutions. A detailed international protocol on illicit trade is being developed under the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and HMRC is taking a lead role in its development. Nevertheless, it is important to note that very little smuggled tobacco is made available through formal retail channels; rather, it is available through other locations such as workplaces, car boot sales or even people’s own homes. I have to say that the Holloway Road, a route that I drive down, seems to be one of the main places. Therefore the second part of the amendment, relating to reporting on the sale of smuggled tobacco in UK shops, is likely to be of limited value. Analysis by HMRC suggests that, today, most illicit cigarettes are counterfeit or non-UK brands. Enforcement authorities have the means to detect counterfeit cigarettes through covert anti-counterfeit markings, while fiscal markings now mean that it is very difficult for non-UK brands to infiltrate the legitimate retail sector. I reassure noble Lords that each year HMRC publishes an assessment of the illicit market share for cigarettes and hand-rolled tobacco, which is the key measure of our success in tackling tobacco smuggling. I turn to the issue of valuation targets. The Committee will be aware that progress in reducing the harm associated with smoking has been measured by public service agreements, and I am happy to say that the latest figures from 2007 show that we have met our targets for the overall adult population of 21 per cent. We are also on track to meet our target for the routine and manual group of 26 per cent. We need to build on this momentum to ensure that health inequalities are tackled and that the harms caused by smoking become something of the past. We already collect a wealth of data on smoking behaviour in England, and we keep abreast of new research on how to protect people from the harms of smoking. The new strategy is being developed to make the best use of all the relevant information and data, and will be informed by the advice of academic experts. I hope that answers the questions raised by the noble Lord, Lord Patel. In the light of that new evidence, Ministers will take a view on whether any further evaluation or target-setting is needed or warranted, given the need to keep to a minimum both costs and any burden associated with the collection of data. However, I assure the Committee that we will continue to be ambitious in bringing down smoking prevalence in the population. We will seek to apply the measures in the new strategy that are most likely to support that aim. I hope that those assurances are sufficient for the noble Lord to feel able to withdraw these amendments.