Health Bill [Lords]

On the hon. Gentleman's first point, I do not wish to make a party political point—[Interruption.] I normally do, but not on this occasion. I remember the time of "The Health of the Nation" in the early 1990s, and progress was made in reducing smoking, but there was a real acceleration in 1997, with the introduction of smoking cessation courses and nicotine patches being made available to people. When tackling an issue of this magnitude, it gets harder and harder the lower we seek to go. The cut that I mentioned in the number of people smoking is a real and appreciable difference that will bring real health benefits to the people concerned and the national health service for years to come. On the hon. Gentleman's second point, I shall discuss vending machines shortly. If I pick up the drift of his question, he wants us to go even further than is proposed in the Bill. I hope that he will discuss with his colleagues the possible effect of that on small businesses, but let us have the debate. People ask about the evidence. A study published in 2008 by Cancer Research UK reviewed two decades' worth of research on the influence that point-of-sale displays have on smoking among young people. The collective conclusion of these studies is that point-of-sale displays not only encourage children who already smoke to make impulse purchases of cigarettes, but encourage children who have never smoked to take up the habit. Research by leading academics at Stanford university's school of medicine, published in 2004, showed that removing point-of-sale displays and advertising could reduce the likelihood of smoking among children and young people by as much as 50 per cent., even when other factors, such as parental smoking, are taken into account. Point-of-sale displays in the US are much more prominent than they are in the UK, but even if this legislation had only a 10th of the impact that it is estimated to have had in the US, it would still mean that 3,000 fewer children would become smokers each year—[Interruption.] I hear the muttering from the hon. Member for Shipley (Philip Davies). If he is talking of the nanny state and saying that it is not worth doing, then shame on him.