My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Masham, who spoke in favour of Amendment 276, which replicates a Private Member’s Bill I am endeavouring to pilot through Parliament; we will see which of us has the fastest track towards the statute book. It is also a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, who has campaigned against the damage done by tobacco for as long as I have known him, and I agree with every word he said.
I will speak to Amendments 272 to 275, which are in my name but supported by all parties. They apply the polluter pays principle to tobacco manufacturers. In view of the lateness of the hour, I will curtail my remarks as much as I can. The principle that the polluter should pay has been accepted by Conservative Governments for over 30 years, starting with the landfill levy to promote recycling, running through the sugar tax on soft drinks to tackle obesity, and referred to only on Wednesday this week by my noble friend Lord Greenhalgh in the debate on building safety, advocating a levy on the construction industry to finance remediation.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has put enormous pressure on public finances, with severe reductions in the public health budget. But without more resources, the tobacco control plan to deliver the Government’s smoke-free
ambition by 2030 is unachievable. Making smoking obsolete by 2030 will achieve three of the missions in the Government’s levelling up White Paper, referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, and published two days ago: to reduce the gap in life expectancy, to reduce that in productivity, and to promote well-being between the top-performing and other areas. However, there was no new investment attached to the White Paper and investment is needed to achieve that ambition.
At current rates of decline, the Smokefree 2030 ambition will not be achieved for our most disadvantaged communities until 2047. Investment is needed to replace the 33% real-terms cut in tobacco control and smoking cessation since 2015-16. Investment in public education campaigns is needed to increase the number of smokers trying to quit and help the stop smoking services triple the success rate when people try. Investment is also needed to crack down on illegal sales and to discourage new smokers from starting to smoke.
The APPG on Smoking and Health, of which I am a vice-chairman, believes the polluter pays principle applies as much, if not more, to the tobacco industry as any other. Tobacco manufacturers make lethal products which have killed 8 million people in the United Kingdom over the last 50 years—that is more than 400 people a day, far more than Covid. To quote the Chief Medical Officer:
“a small number of companies … make profits from the people who they have addicted in young ages … to something which they know will kill them”.
This is an industry that should be made to pay to counter the damage it has done and continues to do, and it has the resources so to do.
The Treasury initially conceded the principle of such a levy, as it consulted on one, but the Government decided not to go ahead because the manufacturers would have simply passed the cost on to consumers. Now we have left the EU, we can prevent that by imposing utility-style price controls and a cap on industry profits rather like the PPRS for medicines. This is a true Brexit dividend—whatever one’s views on Brexit.
Calculations carried out for the all-party group have estimated that a levy could raise as much as £700 million a year from the tobacco manufacturers. The devolved Governments would have the ability to opt into this scheme, which could therefore benefit all parts of the UK. Making the manufacturers pay for tobacco control measures is not a new idea; the US has been doing it since 2009. Its model, which we propose here too, is not a tax but a charge allocated to tobacco manufacturers according to their sales volumes.
The policy is popular. The public believe a levy is justified: 77% support manufacturers paying a levy or licence fee to the Government for measures to help smokers quit and prevent young people taking up smoking, with just 6% opposing. Support for a levy is strong across voters of all the main parties, including the Conservative Party, which both the Minister and I represent. In 2019, when the Government announced their Smokefree 2030 ambition, they promised to consider the polluter pays approach to raising funds for tobacco control. It is long past time to do so.
The amendments are carefully drafted; we are not asking for the immediate introduction of a levy. They require the Government to consult on a statutory scheme and report back to Parliament within six months of the passage of this Act. Going ahead thereafter would reinforce the levelling up White Paper and help the Government secure their ambition for a smoke-free nation. I urge my noble friend to consider this very modest step.