My Lords, these regulations aim to protect children from the harms of second-hand smoke in private vehicles. In 2007, smoke-free legislation was introduced in England and Wales to protect employees and the public from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke in public places, work premises and vehicles. At that time, the legislation was not intended to extend to private vehicles.
The Children and Families Act 2014 amended the Health Act 2006 to give the Secretary of State regulation-making powers to make private vehicles smoke-free places when carrying children under the age of 18. Second-hand smoke is a serious health hazard, and there is no safe level of exposure. Every time someone breathes in second-hand smoke, they breathe in more than 4,000 chemicals. Many are highly toxic, and more than 50 are known to cause cancer. Second-hand smoke is a real and substantial threat to child health, causing a variety of adverse health effects, including increased susceptibility to lower respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis, the worsening of asthma, middle ear disease, decreased lung function and sudden infant death syndrome. We also know that children are more vulnerable to second-hand smoke exposure in vehicles as they breathe more rapidly and inhale more pollutants than adults.
A significant number of children say that they are exposed to second-hand smoke in private vehicles. In 2012, 26% of 11 to 15 year-olds reported being exposed to second-hand smoke in their family’s car and 30% in someone else’s car. We estimate that approximately 3 million children in England are exposed to second-hand smoke in their family car.
Research shows that smoking in vehicles can result in the build-up of high levels of second-hand smoke, which can persist even when windows are open or the ventilation system is in use. Many children feel unable to ask someone to stop smoking when travelling in a car. Research shows that 34% of children who are exposed to second-hand smoke in vehicles do not feel able to ask the person smoking to stop, because they are frightened or embarrassed.
The Government are committed to protecting children from the harms associated with smoking. Much support has been expressed in this House for ending smoking in vehicles carrying children. I commend all the noble Lords who have campaigned for the introduction of these provisions, particularly my noble friend Lord Ribeiro, who sought to introduce similar measures in his Private Member’s Bill.
The regulations extend the existing smoke-free legislation by setting out the circumstances when private vehicles are smoke-free. Specifically, they amend the current regulations that make public vehicles and work vehicles smoke-free so that all road vehicles that are not already smoke-free will be smoke-free places when they are enclosed and a person under 18 is present in the vehicle. As with the existing smoke-free legislation, the regulations do not apply to ships, hovercraft and aircraft, as they are covered under different legislation, and they do not apply to motor homes, camper vans and caravans when they are being used as a home. This is because the policy aim is for the regulations to apply to vehicles, not homes.
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It will be an offence to smoke in a private vehicle with someone under the age of 18 present, and for a driver to fail to prevent smoking in a private vehicle with someone under the age of 18 present. To make the penalties for both offences proportionate, the regulations introduce a fixed penalty notice for the offence of failing to prevent someone smoking in a private vehicle. Currently, for existing smoke-free premises and vehicles this offence falls to the owner or manager of a business and can be dealt with only in court, but an FPN is more appropriate for drivers of private vehicles.
Anyone who smokes in a smoke-free private vehicle will be guilty of an offence regardless of their age, which is consistent with existing smoke-free legislation. The offence of failing to prevent smoking would apply to the driver of the vehicle in all instances, including provisional licence holders, although there is a defence of the driver having taken reasonable steps to cause the person to stop smoking. The FPN will be £50 for both offences. Enforcement officers will use their discretion in deciding whether to issue warnings or fixed penalty notices or to refer an alleged offence directly to court.
Local authorities enforce the existing smoke-free laws. The regulations add police forces as enforcement authorities for smoke-free private vehicles because, unlike local authorities, they are able to request that a vehicle stops if they suspect that an offence is being committed. Local authorities would also be able to enforce the proposed regulations, and there will be an important role for local authority regulatory officers in working jointly with the police on local enforcement activities, as well as continuing their efforts to build compliance for smoke-free legislation generally. The regulations include a statutory duty to review the regulations within five years of their coming into force.
It is important that Public Health England continues its work to encourage voluntary action to protect children from the harms from exposure to second-hand smoke. It will be running a campaign to raise awareness of these health harms from next week. It will also develop a campaign to raise awareness of the new regulations in advance of them coming into force.
The regulations will come into force on 1 October 2015. I consider that the April common commencement date is too soon to allow for sufficient training of enforcement officers and to raise public awareness of the regulations, particularly as it would fall in the purdah period. We expect that to start in late March and it would mean that the Government were limited in their public communications activities.
It is important to remember that, as with the existing smoke-free regulations, we will measure the success of the proposed regulations not by the number of enforcement actions that are taken but, rather, by how behaviour, attitudes and health outcomes change in time.
These regulations form part of our comprehensive approach to tobacco control. We have introduced legislation to make it illegal for an adult to buy, or attempt to buy, tobacco for anyone under the age of 18. Through regulations, we would look to extend the scope of this offence to cover e-cigarettes. The department is consulting—the consultation is in train at the moment—on draft regulations to introduce age-of-sale requirements for electronic cigarettes, just as we have for tobacco. Also, as my honourable friend the Minister for Public Health announced on 21 January, we will be bringing forward legislation for standardised packaging before the end of this Parliament. Protecting children from the harms of second-hand smoke is an important public health measure, and I commend the order to the Committee. I beg to move.