Tobacco and Vapes Bill - amendments and exemptions

The report stage of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill takes place next Wednesday (March 26).

Amendments will be debated and voted upon in the House of Commons before the Bill moves to its third reading, at which point some of the MPs who didn't vote at second reading may come out of the closet and reveal their preferences.

You can read the current list of amendments here.

I assume that no reader of this blog will be directly affected by the generational tobacco sales ban, if and when it is introduced.

Nevertheless it should interest you that the DUP's Sammy Wilson has tabled an amendment that, if passed, would mean it wouldn't be an offence to sell 'tobacco products, herbal smoking products and cigarette papers to people born on or after 1 January 2009'.

Instead it would only be illegal to sell those products to a 'person under the age of 21'.

Another amendment, tabled by Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell, 'exempts tobacco products other than cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco from the offence of selling tobacco products to a person born on or after 1 January 2009'.

In other words, an exemption for cigars, cigarillos, and heated tobacco.

A further amendment, tabled by Lib Dem MP Helen Morgan and supported by four of her colleagues, would restrict the Secretary of State 'to only being able to designate open or unenclosed spaces outside a hospital, children’s playground, nursery, school, college or higher education premises as smoke-free areas'.

Personally I object to smoking being banned in any open space, regardless of whether it's outside hospitals, schools or higher education premises, but if the amendment makes it harder for future Secretaries of State to extend smoking bans to more outdoor spaces then it may be a small price to pay.

The problem is that none of these amendments have been tabled by Labour MPs and without their backing I can't see any of them getting the votes they need.

Unfortunately any plans we may have had to make some noise while the Bill is being debated in the House could be dashed by another political event on the same day – the Chancellor's Spring statement.

What a coincidence!

All is not lost though because whatever happens next week the Tobacco and Vapes Bill still has to go to the House of Lords where it could be amended by peers, so there's plenty to play for, even if the odds are clearly against any dilution of the Bill as it currently stands.

Watch this space.