Health Bill [HL]

I do not agree with the noble Lord at all. One of the effects of having a positive licensing system for the sale of tobacco is that it will distinguish much more clearly the legal sale to adults from the illegal sale. I have no doubt that the incidence of illegal sales will decrease if there is a positive licensing system. The other benefit is that it would help the purposes of the amendment of the noble Earl, Lord Howe, debated last Thursday in which he proposed that adults who buy cigarettes for children should be subject to a particular law and penalised for that. If anyone were selling to adults for the purpose of selling on to children, the licensing system would catch them as well. I would hope that he would see that there is merit in this proposal. The point made by my noble friend Lord Campbell-Savours about smuggling is one which I also endorse. Therefore, I think that the proposal put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Patel, in this amendment, to which I put my name, should be considered very carefully. As I did on Thursday and earlier, I declare my unpaid interest as a director of Action on Smoking and Health and a trustee of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.