Health Bill [HL]

Bearing in mind the debate we have just had, I can be relatively brief on my amendment. It states that vending machines should be regulated, not prohibited. I have two key points to add to what was said in that debate. First, I, too, will welcome the day when no young people smoke. I congratulate the Government; the percentage of young people smoking is falling. I quoted from the survey that showed that between 2004 and 2006 the incidence of young people had fallen by one-third. That is good progress, although further progress is needed. Conversely—and I find this worrying, as I mentioned in my earlier speech, and my noble friend on the Front Bench has mentioned it—the main sources for those young people who still smoke are other people and illicit buying from people who have smuggled cigarettes in and are selling them off cheap at boot fairs and so on. If the Government want to reduce smoking among our young people still further, those two sources have to be tackled. My noble friend has put forward an amendment in relation to adults buying on behalf of young people. We have talked about alcohol; that is a key area that the Minister needs to take seriously. The second area, smuggling and illicit supplies, needs to be cracked down on by Her Majesty’s Customs. Secondly, can regulation work? That was the implication of the Minister’s response to the previous amendment, and that is encouraging. No one suggests that this whole thing is working beautifully on the ground but it was interesting that here, in London, Trading Standards carried out a vigorous enforcement action. It has an intensive programme of activities, including letters and personal visits, aimed at those premises whose compliance with underage legislation was poor. The organisation then went back after a period of time to check whether or not there was compliance from those sources and, quite remarkably, it got a 100 per cent compliance rate. If you have good, strict regulation you can get compliance, and you can make it difficult for those who do not comply. There was a similar story in Wales. Obviously other parts of the country are failing, and I suggest to the Government that it is high time that they cracked down on those local authorities that are not putting the same energy into this that London and Wales are. I look to the department for a proportionate response and to see the regulations being enforced properly, and the Minister indicated that that was going to happen. There is still a threat of prohibition—even the Minister’s tone of voice goes up a bit when that word comes in—and there is a problem: if there is an emphasis on possible prohibition, people will not put in the investment that will be required to ensure that they shift the machines round a bit, or whatever. I hope that the Minister will put her emphasis on good regulation and see that it happens. At this stage, my amendment would delete the word "prohibition". I beg to move.