Clause 17 - Regulations
Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill
3:45 pm
Ms Yvette Cooper (Parliamentary Secretary (Public Health), Department of Health; Pontefract and Castleford, Labour)
We shall happily hold discussions with any of the companies involved about how they might operate in order to prevent any need for future regulations on those matters.However, I add a note of caution about the past success of voluntary arrangements. We put the powers in the Bill so that we would not have to rely on voluntary agreements to regulate potential abuses of the Bill. We need the flexibility to respond if problems arise, but we do not currently intend to use those powers. If we need to introduce regulations, we will consult fully at that time.
Four of the sets of regulations will be subject to the affirmative procedure—those on new technology, brand sharing, display and distributions at nominal cost—because new offences will be created in those four areas. Although the offences are already set out, the introduction of any regulations would take account of the effect felt by people involved in those areas.
On specialist tobacconists and point-of-sale advertising, regulations will clarify defences rather than setting out new offences and new problems. The sponsorship timetable is simply about setting out a timetable. It is appropriate that the negative procedure is used in those areas because they merely set out detail and clarify matters. We do not intend to use regulatory powers in many of those areas if we can avoid it, but it is appropriate to have flexibility. That is why those areas are covered by regulations rather than in the Bill.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 17, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.