I have just received a memo.
It's of special interest not just because of my previous post but because, last week, Forest submitted a 13-page memorandum to a Public Bill Committee that was considering an amendment to the Children and Families Bill that would ban smoking in cars carrying children.
Anyway, it reads as follows:
Children and Families Bill
An amendment was recently tabled to the Children and Families Bill, which seeks to create an offence of failing to prevent smoking in a private vehicle when children are present (those under the age of 18).
On 25 April, a Public Bill Committee session for the Children and Families Bill took place, during which the amendment was debated. It was proposed by Steve Reed MP (Labour), who stated “smoking in cars is a particular concern because of the confined nature of the space. A single cigarette smoked in a moving car with the window half-open exposes a child in the back seat to two thirds as much smoke as they would be exposed to in smoke-filled pub; that increases to 11 times more smoke than in a smoky pub when the cigarette is smoked in a stationary car with the windows closed.”
Responding on behalf of the Government, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education, Edward Timpson MP, acknowledged that a ban on smoking in cars “would not be easy to enforce.” He also referred to a Government marketing campaign, which ran in April/May 2012, to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking in vehicles and in the home, especially when children are present.
In relation to the marketing campaign, the Minister said:
“An evaluation of that campaign showed that it was successful in changing attitudes and behaviours. Some 87 per cent of those surveyed agreed that second-hand smoke can cause significant harm to children, and 70 per cent said that the campaign made them realise that smoking out of an open door or window is not enough to reduce the health risk to children. The Government have decided to rerun the campaign in June 2013.”
At the request of the Minister, the amendment was subsequently withdrawn and will not progress any further [my emphasis].
Here's a link to the short debate.
Forest's memorandum to the committee has been posted here on the UK Parliament website.