Tobacco control campaigners try to hijack Health and Care Bill

The following won't come as a surprise to readers because it's a familiar tobacco control tactic.

Last summer, when the Government was trying to introduce a Business and Planning Bill to reduce red tape for businesses re-opening after the first lockdown, anti-smoking campaigners saw an opportunity to hijack the Bill and introduce an amendment that would have prohibited smoking in the new outdoor licensed areas (for eating and drinking) that were springing up all over the country.

The amendment was introduced very late in the day and thankfully failed, with Forest being credited by one peevish member of the House of Lords for having undue influence on government which was flattering if probably untrue because I don't think Number Ten or the-then Business Secretary Robert Jenrick were ever minded to add to the restrictions faced by pubs, restaurants and cafes.

Nevertheless the Government was forced to compromise with local authorities given the power (should they choose) to issue new pavement licences only on condition that smoking would be prohibited. To date however only a handful of local authorities in England and Wales have adopted that policy which must be incredibly frustrating to ASH and their acolytes in parliament.

Anyway, back to the present and the Government is currently pushing through Parliament a Health and Care Bill. Introduced in July and now at the committee stage, it's largely related to reforming the NHS:

The government is committed to delivering world-class care for patients and this Bill will help deliver that by building on the NHS’ own proposals for reform to make it less bureaucratic, more accountable, and more integrated in the wake of COVID-19.

The Health and Care Bill has nothing to do with tobacco control, which the Government is already planning to address through its new tobacco control plan later this year, but that hasn't stopped anti-smoking campaigners from using the Bill as a platform to pursue their own agenda.

Hence Labour MP Mary Foy - who chairs the APPG on Smoking and Health which is run by ASH - has tabled a series of amendments that would give the health secretary the power to:

• ensure a health warning is put on every individual cigarette
• get a health warning card put in every packet of cigarettes
• bring in a "polluter pays" new levy on tobacco firms to fund public health measures
• raise the legal age of buying cigarettes from 18 to 21
• ban flavouring being used in tobacco products
• stop manufacturers of e-cigarettes from using branding which is attractive to children

Although the amendments are in Foy's name they have ASH's fingerprints all over them. My guess is the Government will reject them and with a substantial majority in the House of Commons the amendments are unlikely to pass there.

The House of Lords is a different beast though and that's where the real battle might take place.

Today’s Guardian has the story here (Smoking kills’ could be printed on every cigarette under new proposals). The report includes a short comment from me. The full quote read:

"These stale and tired ideas have been around for years. The reason they haven't been adopted in the UK is because there is no evidence that they will significantly reduce smoking rates or discourage young people from smoking.

"Everyone is aware of the health risks of smoking. There are huge, impossible to miss health warnings on every pack of cigarettes including grotesque images of smoking-related diseases.

"Tobacco is sold in standardised packaging and banned from display in shops. Enough is enough. If adults still choose to smoke that is a matter for them not for government and that choice must be respected without further regulation that restricts choice and treats adults like children.

"Introducing a levy on tobacco companies would disproportionately hurt less well off smokers because it will inevitably be passed on to consumers who already pay punitive rates of taxation on tobacco.

"Outlawing the sale of tobacco to anyone under 21 won’t stop young people smoking. It will simply infantilise young adults and drive the sale of tobacco underground, by-passing legitimate retailers and enriching criminals who won’t stop to ask for proof of age.

"Far from protecting younger consumers it will expose many more to illicit and counterfeit tobacco. For some it may even make smoking cool again.”

I believe the amendments will be discussed in committee today or tomorrow. I'll keep you posted if there are any developments.

Update: The Independent and Mail Online also has the story with a quote from Forest.

Curiously a sub-editor (not the reporter) has given the Independent report the headline, '‘Smoking kills’ to be on every cigarette in new tobacco rules'.

To be clear, there are no 'new tobacco rules'. Not yet, anyway.

The idea, as I explain above, has been proposed by anti-smoking campaigners led by ASH in a series of amendments to the Health and Care Bill whose primary purpose has nothing to do with tobacco control!

They may succeed but at the moment they're just trying it on in an attempt to promote these measures so they develop some traction.

Or perhaps it's just another confidence trick.

PS. My comments sound so much better in Italian:

Simon Clark, direttore della lobby pro-fumo Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco, in tutta risposta alla proposta di Foy: «Tutti sono a conoscenza dei rischi dati dal fumo. Ci sono degli avvisi enormi e impossibili da non notare su ogni pacchetto di sigarette, come anche delle immagini grottesche di persone malate. Quando è troppo è troppo. Sta gli adulti a dover decidere se vogliono fumare o meno, non al governo».