Clause 5 - Advertising: defences
Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill [Lords]
5:45 pm
Ms Yvette Cooper (Parliamentary Secretary (Public Health), Department of Health; Pontefract and Castleford, Labour)
The problem with the amendments is that they would allow an ostrich defence for a person who closes their eyes to the likelihood that they are involved in a tobacco advertisement and, therefore, avoids taking responsibility for something about which they should have reasonably known.
The hon. Gentleman referred to the Food Safety Act 1990. Interestingly, section 22(b) of that Act contains a provision on advertising for sale food that is unfit for human consumption. A person who does that has a defence if he
''did not know and had no reason to suspect that''
the publication of the advertisement would amount to an offence. That provision uses exactly the same words as the Bill. It is right that those words are in the Bill to ensure that people take responsibility where they should, rather than ducking out of the responsibility.
The Bill was amended in another place so that a person who is charged with an offence will not have to prove any element of their defence, but will instead have the less onerous obligation to produce credible evidence to support their alleged defence. That should ease the hon. Gentleman's concerns and, therefore, I oppose the amendments.