Health Bill [HL]

My thunder was stolen in that I wished to close this section of the Committee’s deliberations on tobacco by wishing everybody a very happy national No Smoking Day, but my noble friend got there first. We have considerable sympathy with the intention behind these amendments. They seek to support and protect public health policy development by ensuring it is informed about the tobacco industry’s activities or that it is protected from tobacco industry interference. I turn first to Amendment 107. Experience has shown that if you clamp down on the tobacco industry in one area of promotion, it will actively look for alternative means of promotion. Knowing what promotional activities are being planned, developed and implemented by tobacco companies would clearly be an advantage and allow public health policy to keep pace with developments. On the other hand, some noble Lords vociferously said that they consider that such a requirement would go beyond the bounds of a proportionate and appropriate burden on business and be likely to compromise sensitive commercial confidences. I have to ask whether we need to ensure that commercial confidence is protected in this area. There are arguments on both sides but, on balance, I do not feel able to accept this amendment. Nevertheless, I have listened carefully to all the points made during this debate. I would be interested to hear more on the subject and will be happy to meet noble Lords to listen further to their views on this topic. I now turn to Amendment 107B, which seeks a review and published guidelines on interaction with the tobacco industry. As the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, explained, Article 5.3 of the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control states: ""In setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law."" The UK is a signatory to the framework convention and takes its obligations under the agreement very seriously. In November 2008, we played a part alongside European Union colleagues in developing and agreeing final guidelines for the implementation of Article 5.3. I shall not quote any more of it because the noble Baroness did so. The guidelines promote accountability and transparency when Governments interact with the tobacco industry on public health matters. In practice, this means that meetings between the Department of Health and the tobacco industry are held on an exceptional basis only where that serves the purpose of public health policy development. It is made clear to attendees of a meeting that it will cover the specific subject in question only and that details of the meeting will be made available to any individual on request. I am not sure how a review and the publication of more guidelines would improve how we abide by those obligations, but I am always happy to look at ideas about how that could happen. On that basis, I hope that the noble Baroness will feel able to withdraw her amendment.