Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, I welcome the intention behind the amendment, which is to protect children from the marketing of tobacco products and to make completely clear the relative safety or otherwise of tobacco products. As I said in Grand Committee, the Government’s position on this issue was set out by the Secretary of State’s Written Ministerial Statement made in the other place, which stated: ""We believe that more needs to be done to develop our understanding of how the packaging of tobacco products influences smoking by both adults and young people. The Government will therefore keep tobacco packaging under close review".—[Official Report, Commons, 9/12/08; col. 47WS.]" Evidence presented during the tobacco consultation suggests that the packaging of tobacco products may encourage young people to start smoking and may undermine health messages about the dangers of smoking. We want to strengthen and build on this evidence base. We are committed to introducing a new tobacco control strategy by the end of the year. In Committee, I mistakenly said that the strategy would be for both England and Wales. I take this opportunity to clarify that the new tobacco control strategy will, unfortunately, be for England only. Further action on tobacco control in Wales is being addressed through the Welsh Assembly’s Our Healthy Future framework. In England, the Government will outline in the new tobacco control strategy what further steps we might take to protect children and people who smoke from misleading or promotional messages. Introducing plain packaging for tobacco products will be something that we will look at. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Patel, will feel able to withdraw his amendment in the knowledge that, should the evidence lead us to plain packaging, the Government will bring it to Parliament.