Health Bill [HL]

Amendment 86 would make it illegal for adults to buy tobacco on behalf of children, a practice known as proxy purchasing. The noble Earl’s intention behind the amendment, to reduce the number of underage people who can access tobacco, is of course completely commendable and we agree with it. We all agree that it is wrong for adults to supply children with cigarettes. It undermines the law and encourages young people to experiment with and take up smoking, with all the long-term health consequences that we have discussed. At the moment, the Government feel that the law must be enforceable and proxy purchasing is a difficult offence to pursue. This is partly confirmed by our experience of the rarity of prosecutions for proxy purchasing of alcohol, although I take on board the broader points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins. Proxy purchasing for alcohol is not currently undertaken by local authorities but by the police. For local authorities to implement proxy purchasing for tobacco, they would need formal authorisation to undertake surveillance. This would therefore place a burden on local authorities requiring them to observe shops to monitor sales and subsequent provision of tobacco to young people. Furthermore, other means of obtaining cigarettes are more commonly used by underage people. As we have discussed, in 2006 almost 80 per cent of children aged between 11 and 15 bought their own cigarettes from a shop. New sanctions against offenders will come into force on 1 April 2009, which will mean that magistrates will have the power to impose orders prohibiting the sale of tobacco for periods of up to a year by persons or shops that are found to have sold tobacco to people under 18. The Government have made additional resources available to local authorities through LACORS for the enforcement of tobacco-related legislation. These additional resources are to enable local trading standards officers to carry out tobacco test purchases more frequently. The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 increased the sanctions against retailers, for example, who persistently sell tobacco to under age people. We are working with local authorities and retailer representatives to ensure that the law is understood, retailers are given guidance and support and trading standards officers are able to take action against irresponsible retailers who persistently continue to sell tobacco to children. Better enforcement of existing legislation is, at the moment, likely to be more effective than adding another offence which is difficult to enforce. However, a similar amendment on proxy purchasing of tobacco was debated in this House in March 2008 and was withdrawn following a debate on the issue. The Government then promised to keep the position under review; we are doing so and I make that promise again. We would certainly welcome evidence on the issue of proxy purchasing of tobacco. Although I am sure that noble Lords would agree that reducing children’s access to tobacco is extremely important, at the moment we believe that creating an offence for proxy purchasing would be difficult and unenforceable.