Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, throughout the deliberations on this Bill, as noble Lords who took part in all of them may recall, I have at times been equally uncompelled by the campaign run by ASH as by the one run by the manufacturers. At times I have found both to be somewhat overstated. I have therefore spent all the time we have deliberated on this Bill coming at every issue and briefing with considerable care and an open mind. I have been helped in that by the fact that now, as all the way through this Bill, our Benches have free votes on this matter. With some considerable relief I heard the noble Earl, Lord Howe, clarify precisely what the issue is today. The one of most concern is what happened in the Commons and the matter of Commons procedure. I do not wish to be flip at all, but if this House set itself the task of addressing every piece of legislation that had a defective passage through another place we would never go into recess. But I take the point that there was not a vote, because it is important. That is why I made it my business to talk to colleagues in another place to see whether Members there had been frustrated over it. My understanding is that they were not. My honourable friends in another place are usually pretty quick to tell me about something like that. The fact that there was no vote may, as the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, said, suggest a frustration of the will that House, but that is the most important point on that. I have listened with great care this afternoon to arguments on vending machines, some of which have been new and many of which have been rehearsed before. Throughout this debate we have missed one important point. Vending machines predate a whole load of other changes in society; they were there in "Brief Encounter", on station platforms, when everything else for miles around was closed. These days it is extremely hard to live anywhere where there is not a shop open 24 hours a day within a manageable distance, although I accept that in some country areas that may be an overstatement. Vending machines are an anachronism—a point that has been missed—so why have they continued to exist? They continue to exist for the convenience of people who smoke and because the vendors of tobacco find them an effective way in which to find the new markets that they need among young people. I did not agree with the display ban that was agreed in the Health Bill. I share the deep concerns of noble Lords that such a ban will lead to an increase in smuggling. I did not agree with some of the other measures that your Lordships’ House agreed to. But banning vending machines, given all the arguments put before us, is the right thing to do. It is in the interests of young people and it should happen as quickly as possible. That would be my view; whether my colleagues choose to support me is a matter for them.