Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, I express opposition to this amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Patel. In Grand Committee, when the noble Lord, Lord Patel, introduced a plain packaging proposal, which was similar to, but not exactly the same, as this Amendment 60, he admitted that: ""Large, bold, written health warnings are effective in motivating smokers to quite, and new picture warnings may be even more effective"." He went on to say: ""However, tobacco branding lessens the impact of the warning message, as colourful branding detracts attention from health warnings".—[Official Report, 11/3/09; col. GC442.]" I find that last sentence very difficult to accept. It seems to me a major assumption that the brand detracts seriously from the health warnings. The phrase, for example, "Smoking kills", which when looking at the gantry one sees again and again because it is on each packet, and the visually unpleasant pictorial warnings are far more vivid than any logo or brand, whether coloured or not. Even the Government—at least when last in Grand Committee—who seemed only too willing to impose further restrictions on the promotions of tobacco products, have not been impressed by evidence that the introduction of plain packaging would reduce the number of young people taking up smoking. Since the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002 banned most methods of promoting and advertising tobacco, brand differentiation is one of the few methods left to compete in the market place—apart from reductions in price. Presumably, neither the noble Lord, Lord Patel, nor his colleagues who favour this amendment, would want competition to consist entirely in lowering prices. That, of course, would encourage young people to buy. At Grand Committee, the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, and I expressed concern that Amendment 60, or something like it, expressly opened up the possibility of prohibiting by regulation the use of trademarks on cigarette packets—and trademarks are specifically mentioned in subsection (2) of Amendment 60. To obtain a trademark on any product you have to pay application fees, you have to pay registration fees, you have to pay renewal fees; all paid to the state. In return, you get a property right, which of course is absolutely useless unless you can affix the trademark to the relevant product. In Grand Committee, I quoted an expert on intellectual property law, Mr Christopher Morcom QC, who expressed concern that such a proposal would contravene international law, European law, and British national law. Since our debates in Grand Committee, he wrote a letter to the Times, 24 April 2009. The last sentence in his letter reads: ""The House of Lords should have none of it"."