Health Bill [HL]

It might be helpful if I said what the Government’s position was on this. Amendment 105 would enable the Secretary of State through regulations to impose plain-packaging requirements on all tobacco products. I do not intend to rerun the arguments about tobacco and young people at this time; please take those as read. I am going to limit myself to the Government’s position on this one issue. The Government’s position on plain packaging was set out by the Secretary of State in a Written Ministerial Statement made in another place that stated: ""We believe that more needs to be done to develop our understanding of how the packaging of tobacco products influences smoking by both adults and young people. The Government will therefore keep tobacco packaging under close review".—[Official Report, Commons, 9/12/08; col. 47WS.]" That review, I suspect—I will confirm this if the Committee wishes—will address the points raised by my noble friend Lord Borrie and the noble Lord, Lord Naseby. We have committed to developing the evidence base on whether selling tobacco products in plain or generic packaging could change behaviour and, in particular, protect young people from tobacco industry marketing. However, we consider it premature at this stage to take this major step. To be completely clear, the UK is perfectly capable of being in the vanguard of new movements in public health, but I note that no other jurisdiction in the world has yet introduced such legislation. We will work hard to ensure that the emerging evidence on plain packaging is kept under review, and the Government’s policy will change if and when that is appropriate. I hope that, in the light of the Government’s commitment to develop the evidence on plain packaging and to keep the issue of tobacco packaging under review, the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw the amendment.