Clause 3 - Advertising: newspapers, periodicals etc
Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Mr Adrian Flook (Taunton, Conservative)
In keeping with trying to be helpful in promoting the underlying aims of the Bill, I shall refer to the explanatory notes, which mention ''anyone in the chain''. I accept the point made earlier by the hon. Member for Edinburgh, West on clause 2(2). There should be some consistency, and clause 3(a) would be tidied up if ''or printer'' were added to it.
The hon. Member for North Tayside (Pete Wishart) referred to an advertisement—it was on a scrappy piece of paper—for the ''Bacci Bus''. If one could not find out who the organisers of the aforementioned bus were, one could go to the printer that produced the scrappy piece of paper that he waved in front of us. All Members of Parliament are subject to electoral law, so we are very aware of the ''printed and published by'' note at the end of every piece of paper put out in our name. I therefore find it surprising that the word ''printer'' cannot appear. It makes eminent sense to put together ''any proprietor or editor'' and ''or printer''.
Printing can be considered as a natural extension of ''proprietor or editor''. Indeed, the printer produces something that is tangible, unlike the editor or publisher. As we are not always sure who is the perpetrator of a tobacco advertisement, it is important
to have the opportunity to go to the printer, which produced a physical product that can be waved in the air, as my hon. Friend the Member for North Tayside showed. We should be able to say that we want to go after the people who printed the advertisement. It is strange that the Government have not already included the words of the amendment in the clause.
As someone who has employed printers for electoral communications—and between such communications, as elections are obviously not won purely during an election—I should declare the interest that I have given out printing business with intent to do so. If we did not insert the word ''printer'' we would not be able to go after the printer, who is likely to know who has asked him to print the advertisement—every printer I have ever hired has come after me for a bill. The printer is an important route to finding the perpetrators of an advertisement.