Tobacco Advertising and Promotion (Display of Prices) (England) Regulations 2010

My Lords, I thank the Minister for introducing the regulations in her customarily thorough fashion. I congratulate the noble Earl, Lord Howe, on opposing them with some style. I find myself in a slightly different position. As noble Lords will recall from the passage of the legislation from which the regulations come, I supported the proposals to ban vending machines. I have sympathy with the noble Earl, Lord Howe, in his scepticism about the costings produced by the department, but I am afraid that I take a slightly different view. I can live with an overstated case, because the simple fact is that vending machines are an anachronism and belong to a time when other forms of trading were far more heavily regulated and limited than they are now. On balance, the evidence shows that vending machines provide an opportunity to young people to take up smoking which in some cases they would not otherwise have. Therefore, the case is made. I welcome the fact that the Government have stood by the courage of their convictions and gone ahead with the decision to remove vending machines altogether. I accept the point made by the noble Earl, Lord Howe, about the immediate effect on businesses which supplied the machines. They would not be the first businesses ever to have experienced a dramatic change in their trading environment and to have had to change and adapt their business. Overall, the general case for good stands with the regulations and I therefore welcome them. I agree with the noble Earl, Lord Howe, that the evidence base for the other regulations is insubstantial. I argued that throughout the passage of the legislation and I am afraid that I lost. Therefore, I am in a position where I, too, have to accept the regulations which will go through. The policy is mistaken and to follow it will mean that we have inadvertently created conditions in which it becomes much easier for people to sell illegally imported tobacco. However, we had extensive and detailed debate during the passage of the legislation, at the end of which the intent of Parliament was clear. One usually has to go through regulations in significant detail to make sure that Parliament’s will has been reflected. In this case, it has been. The noble Earl, Lord Howe, sought to caricature the actions of the Government in bringing forward such detailed regulations. I simply make the observation to him that the tobacco companies brought much of this upon themselves by the way in which they exploited the previous policy on tobacco advertising. Following the passage of the Bill of my noble friend Lord Clement-Jones, advertising was restricted solely to the gantries that one sees now. That tobacco companies, with what I suppose was commendable commercial application, exploited that to the full perhaps led to these regulations being so detailed and so tight. Perhaps I may raise an issue with the Minister, which I hope arises from a mistake on my part. In the prescription of what can and cannot be displayed, I see no mention of health warnings. I believe that it was the intention of Parliament that health warnings would still be visible on displays. I, too, was somewhat taken by the dimensions referred to in the regulations. I find it somewhat strange that we are referring to type in millimetres rather than in point size. Will the Minister tell us the type size being referred to and say why there is no reference to point size? People who deal in type usually use that as a measure, and people who work with people who have visual impairments are used to talking in terms of point size, so that would be useful information. Can the Minister tell us the extent to which these regulations mirror regulations in other countries? During the passage of the legislation, a great deal was made of laws that the Government had looked at in various states in Canada and in Ireland. To what extent do these regulations follow the legislation that applies there now and to what extent does it go further? However, overall, as the noble Earl, Lord Howe, said, this is a matter on which Parliament has spoken, and it is incumbent upon us to accept these regulations.