Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, my apologies, but it appears that someone has inadvertently removed my papers. My amendment relates to plain packaging. In summary, the amendment is about providing the Secretary of State with powers to make regulations which will restrict the use of branding, including the shape and colour of tobacco products and their packaging. The pack will retain the brand name of the product displayed in a standard font and the volume of the product; for example, "20 cigarettes". The pack will retain features required by statute, including health warnings, tar and nicotine yields and a duty stamp. Before making these regulations, the Secretary of State shall consult with affected parties. The regulations will be subject to affirmative resolution. The measures are necessary because the current branded packaging constitutes a highly effective form of tobacco advertising. Tobacco branding is particularly potent in the recruitment of young people into a lifelong and lethal addiction. Design features including colour-coding give the misleading and illegal impression that one type of cigarette is less harmful than another. I reintroduced the amendment because since Committee plenty of new evidence has emerged from a variety of sources. I have also amended it in response to the objection of the noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, that it should provide for an affirmative instrument. Greater clarity has been provided by the Minister on the forthcoming tobacco control strategy which could include a planned review of the evidence. The Committee stage of the debate coincided with the World Conference of Tobacco or Health on the very day Members debated plain packs, and new research was presented that showed that plain packs are an effective means of controlling sales to children. There are other issues relating to plain packs, which I believe the new amendment addresses. I hope that the Minister agrees to include it in the tobacco control strategy. If young people and smokers are to be given a real, free and informed choice about whether they should smoke or not, we should prohibit the branding which misinforms and inhibits choice. I beg to move.