Clause 3 - Advertising: newspapers, periodicals etc
Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill [Lords]
11:15 am
Mr Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham, Conservative)
We should like the Minister to clarify some brief points, which I am sure can be easily answered. Clause 3(b) refers to
''any person who (directly or indirectly) procured the inclusion of the advertisement''.
In my experience, ''procured'' is not a very parliamentary term. I have not seen it used in other Bills. Can the Minister elaborate on what procuring will mean in the context of this Bill? I would have thought that it throws up a whole host of possibilities.
Under clause 3(c),
''any person who sells the publication, or offers it for sale, or otherwise makes it available to the public, is guilty of an offence.''
I believe that concerns about that were raised in another place. Logically, we are talking there about paper boys or girls, who could be guilty of distributing something that contains a tobacco advertisement. They might see that, but have no knowledge that the law prohibits it. In reality, they are at the bottom of the responsibility chain. The culpability should lie with the newsagent selling the newspaper, periodical or
magazine being distributed by the paper boy or girl, and, above that, with the publisher, printer and other people whom we have discussed. I should like some assurances about where the cut-off point is. Common sense dictates that such people, in the lower echelons of the dissemination process, should not be included but, strictly speaking, under the clause as worded, they would be.