Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, I also speak to Amendment 43. The government proposal in Clause 19—the most fundamental, significant proposal on tobacco in the Bill—is to prohibit entirely any and all displays of tobacco products in retail premises. The stated objective of Clause 19 is to protect children from the promotion of tobacco products and to support those adults who are trying to quit smoking. Everybody will know that in both supermarkets and smaller retail shops there are, usually behind the counter, gantries. Gantries are units displaying tobacco products in retail outlets. The effect of the Government’s proposal in Clause 19 is that all those gantries and displays would have to be covered up in some way. My view, expressed in Grand Committee, was that Clause 19 should be removed entirely from the Bill. That proposal is shortly to be discussed under Amendment 46, tabled by the noble Earl, Lord Howe. The Government’s case for Clause 19 is seriously flawed. It is, to a large part, dependent upon dubious and highly speculative evidence from various Canadian provinces and Iceland. It ignores the fact that the display must nowadays in Britain be heavily weighed down with health warnings, "Smoking kills" being the most prominent indication behind the counter that any customer can readily see. It also ignores the huge success, as vouched for by the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, of the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces, in terms of both compliance, which is incredibly high, and improvements in public health. Noble Lords will see that my Amendment 42 is a kind of compromise, intended to permit some form of limited display in shops where tobacco products are often for sale. The display under my amendment would be limited to one packet only for each tobacco product offered for sale in those particular premises. I got to that point in thinking about how some compromise might be achieved by studying closely the words of my noble friend Lady Thornton: ""This is not about preventing any viewing ever of a cigarette pack by a child. But there is a big difference between seeing a single cigarette pack and being exposed to a large, brightly lit and colourful gantry in your local corner shop next to your sweets".—[Official Report, 9/3/09; col. GC 391.]" The noble Baroness went on to admit that some adult customers—although not all the time and not all that often—need a chance to see a particular cigarette packet before buying it. The rest—most—usually just go to the one that they are used to and which is their normal purchase. I have carefully followed the words of the Minister in drafting Amendment 42. The draft assumes that the Government wish to impose some regulations on the size of the area covered by a display to avoid any possibility of the "brightly lit and colourful" display coming in via a backdoor when the Minister, quite properly, is concerned about that. Linked to Amendment 42, but on a somewhat different topic, is Amendment 43. Tobacco products are often displayed in places such as nightclubs and casinos where access to the premises is usually forbidden to anyone under the age of 18, and that is strictly controlled. No child could conceivably be influenced to take up smoking through tobacco products displayed in places where he or she has no access. Surely the Government will not justify the application of the ban to nightclubs by the need to protect adults who want to quit smoking. That would be a very tenuous argument for this application to nightclubs. There may be people—perhaps even in this House—who have doubts about the effectiveness of the exclusion of those under 18 years old from nightclubs, but I emphasise the controls that the Licensing Act 2003 imposed, whereby the relevant premises licence or club premises certificate restricts access to individuals aged 18 or over. I also refer to the new system of licensing for door supervisors. Noble Lords may have referred to them in their time as bouncers but I believe that "door supervisors" is preferred by those concerned at present. Licensing was introduced for them in 2006 and I am indebted to my noble friend Lady Henig, who is chairman of the Security Industry Authority, for enabling me to appreciate the much improved image of door supervisors among the public and the police. There is greater trust now in their effectiveness because they have to undergo criminal record checks and training in health and safety, conflict resolution and awareness of drugs. With entry so comprehensively restricted for nightclubs and casinos to those over 18, surely there can be no question whatever of the display of tobacco products in such premises having any influence on children. I beg to move.