Clause 4 - Advertising: exclusions
Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill [Lords]
3:15 pm
Ms Yvette Cooper (Parliamentary Secretary (Public Health), Department of Health; Pontefract and Castleford, Labour)
Amendment No. 10 alters clause 4(1)(a) to create an additional exclusion from the advertising ban to allow tobacco companies to send unsolicited advertisements for their products directly to their investors. The Government oppose the amendment. The Bill does not prevent companies from communicating with their investors about their shareholding—about the company's profits and losses, about the arrangements for the annual general meeting, or about any of the other issues about which they might need to communicate with their investors. However, it is right that investors should have the same protection from unsolicited advertisements and promotional material as the rest of us. People who have shares in tobacco companies will be among the 70 per cent. of smokers who want to give up.