Health Bill [HL]

The clause, together with Schedule 4, replaces the automatic exclusion for specialist tobacconists from existing legislation on tobacco advertising currently provided by Section 6(1) of the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002. It instead enables the Secretary of State, Welsh Ministers and the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland to make separate regulations on when and where tobacco specialists, as defined by the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002, may be exempt from the prohibition on tobacco advertising. The current provision in the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002 provides an automatic exemption for specialist tobacconists from all the prohibition on advertising specialist tobacco products on their premises. That means tobacco products other than cigarettes or hand-rolling tobacco, such as cigars and pipe tobacco. In line with the proposed prohibition of tobacco displays, the Government’s overall aim is to remove all promotion or advertising of tobacco that is regularly accessible to children. It would be inconsistent to remove tobacco displays from all other shops but to allow specialist tobacconists to continue with a blanket exemption, but we are mindful of the need to take a proportionate approach. The clause will allow the Government to extend existing rules on tobacco advertising to specialist tobacconists, while still being able to exempt them where that is deemed appropriate. The Government’s intention is to maintain the general exemption but the power would enable us, for example, to prohibit advertisements outside specialist tobacco shops or in shop windows where these are in view of the general public, including children and young people. Our intention is that specialist tobacconists will still be able to advertise tobacco products other than cigarettes or hand-rolling tobacco and display tobacco products inside their shops. We understand from our contact and discussion with the specialist tobacco industry that approximately 50 shops in England fall into this category. We also understand that many specialist tobacconists have voluntary policies in place not to admit persons under the age of 18 on to their premises. That is a highly responsible practice that the Government would encourage across the specialist tobacconist sector. We also understand from the industry that the majority of customers of specialist tobacconist shops, a very stable customer base, are aged between 36 and 60 years of age, and generally have already decided to purchase specialist tobacco products, such as pipe tobacco or cigars before entering the shop. We will work with representatives of the specialist tobacco retail trade to develop the detail of how the powers will be used in practice. Any requirements would be introduced with a long lead-in time and would not come into effect until 2013, in line with display requirements for smaller shops. We intend that regulations made under this new provision will help to ensure that children are effectively and comprehensively protected from the promotion of tobacco, while ensuring that any restrictions on specialist tobacconists remain proportionate to the problem. For these reasons, we consider Clause 18 to provide a vital element of the new tobacco controls proposed in this Bill, without which the overall package on removing tobacco displays would be incomplete. I therefore recommend that Clause 18 stand part of the Bill.