Tobacco and Vapes Bill – progress report

Further to yesterday's post, we're still waiting for the Government to announce the date of the report stage of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

If you are unfamiliar with the process, the progress of a bill starts with its formal introduction in the House of Commons. This is the first reading and there is no debate.

It then moves on to the second reading, where there is a debate on the floor of the House, and if a bill passes that hurdle it proceeds as follows:

Committee stage (Commons)
Report stage (Commons)
Third reading (Commons)
First reading (Lords)
Second reading (Lords)
Committee stage (Lords)
Report stage (Lords)
Third reading (Lords)
Consideration of amendments
Royal Assent

The committee stage is when a committee of MPs (chosen by party whips, if it's a government Bill) gets to scrutinise the bill, line by line, and discuss/vote for amendments.

After 16 sittings the Tobacco and Vapes Bill completed the Commons' committee stage at the end of January and is now awaiting the report stage which is described thus:

Report stage gives MPs an opportunity, on the floor of the House, to consider further amendments (proposals for change) to a bill which has been examined in committee.

All MPs may speak and vote - for lengthy or complex bills the debates may be spread over several days.

All MPs can suggest amendments to the bill or new clauses (parts) they think should be added.

The report stage is usually followed, almost immediately, by the third reading of the Bill when MPs debate the amendments and vote for a second time.

The process is then repeated in the House of Lords before the bill returns to the Commons where amendments introduced by peers are considered by MPs and either accepted or rejected.

If rejected, this can lead to the bill going back and forth from one House to the other until agreement is reached, or peers are eventually forced to accept that the elected chamber ought to have the final say.

You can read the current version of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill (as amended by the Commons' Public Bill Committee) here.

One proposed amendment, to replace the generational ban on the sale of tobacco with an alternative proposal to restrict the sale of tobacco to those aged 25 and above, was withdrawn following a Committee debate.

Another proposed amendment that would have restricted the places government could designate as 'smoke free' to 'open or unenclosed spaces outside an NHS property, children’s playground, nursery, school, college or higher education premises' was also defeated following a vote.

As things stand, therefore, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill could be used by any government to extend 'smoke free' status to almost any open or unenclosed space without further debate in parliament.

It may not happen immediately, but it doesn't take much imagination to predict how this will pan out in the years ahead. Beaches, parks, you name it. There won't be a single outdoor public space that will be beyond the 'smoke free' ambition of big government.

Meanwhile, report stage amendments currently include replacing the generational ban by restricting the legal of age of sale of tobacco to anyone under 21.

The relevant amendment has been proposed by Sammy Wilson, DUP MP for East Antrim, with the support of Conservative MP Sir John Hayes.

You can find the current list of report stage amendments here. More will be tabled, I'm sure.

And the Bill hasn't even reached the House of Lords where a posse of peers closely allied to ASH will be lying in wait with their own amendments that will no doubt include further restrictions on smoking and tobacco.

I'll keep you posted.