Clause 17 - Regulations
Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill
2:45 pm
Ms Yvette Cooper (Parliamentary Secretary (Public Health), Department of Health; Pontefract and Castleford, Labour)
New clause 3 refers to the debate on the difference between advertisements and displays. To ensure full clarity, we tabled a brief amendment earlier and said that we would also table a new clause.
As stated in an earlier clause, we want to allow advertising at the point of sale. Where products are for sale, advertising will be permitted. The regulations will specify what kind of advertising will be acceptable. During the debate it became clear that there might be a lack of clarity about what would happen when, even if advertising were constrained within the regulations, companies or organisations tried to find a way around that by displaying their products around a shop in a way that might be construed as an advertisement, but where the clear purpose was to promote the tobacco product. Companies might try to argue that they were not advertising their product, simply displaying it for sale. That might be a source of concern, and it requires clarification.
We have no problem with the way in which products are currently displayed for sale and no intention of restricting ordinary displays to behind a gantry or to the usual displays in duty free shops. Our intention is not to prevent the broad status quo. We are, however, concerned that companies might find loopholes that would allow them to display their products to promote tobacco, contrary to the Bill. For example, they might scatter cigarettes among children's toys or extend a display of cigarettes to fill a shop window.
We would prefer not to set out regulations and not to use the regulatory power. If a display is used for an advertisement—for example, Marlboro cigarettes stacked in the shape of a big M, as in the Marlboro sign—the Bill's powers for prosecuting advertisements may be invoked. The regulations in the new clause will provide some back-up to prevent future abuse of displays. It is not our intention to regulate at this stage; should we need to in future, we would not set out to constrain or regulate the broad forms of display typically used today in corner shops or other places where tobacco products are for sale.