Health Bill [HL]

My noble friend is absolutely right. If they were not able to get along to the function in the Palace, no doubt they would have been invited to Glyndebourne, Wimbledon, the test match, rugby league or many other activities that they were then allowed to sponsor. As I understand it, invitations are still made available to Members of the House of Lords and the other House. A number of them appear on the Register of Members’ Interests. Indeed, I was astonished to discover last year that British American Tobacco is a corporate sponsor of Glyndebourne, which is apparently not covered by the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002. When I went to the Glyndebourne website, I found the BAT logo and clicked on it, which took me straight to the BAT company website where its various products were advertised. Members of the Committee may think that I am a spoilsport, but I am afraid that I reported it to the trading standards officer in Sussex who immediately insisted that the link be removed. Although the emblem remains, it is now no longer possible to get to the BAT site via the Glyndebourne site. Today’s amendments are timely. Nobody has yet mentioned that today is national No Smoking Day. I take this opportunity to congratulate my noble friends on my left on reducing smoking in the United Kingdom to its lowest-ever prevalence level, 21 per cent. This shows that the successive legislation that we have passed is working. A further important statistic that relates to national No Smoking Day is that, according to the Office for National Statistics press release, 66 per cent of smokers say that they are desperate to give up smoking. We should be doing everything that we possibly can to help them do that. We should ensure that nothing is done to encourage young people to start. Above all, we must watch what the tobacco industry is up to. As we have heard from the noble Baroness, its efforts to get round legislation and sell to vulnerable markets, outside Europe if necessary, in order to keep its business going is utterly scandalous and needs to be exposed. I very much hope that my noble friend will be able to accept at least the spirit of these amendments.