Clause 7 - Developments in technology
Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill [Lords]
11:45 am
Mr Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 34, in page 4, line 5, at beginning insert 'From 1st January 2007'.
I wish to speak only briefly to the amendment because I hope to raise a wider issue under the clause stand part debate. The clause is one of the most far-reaching, so-called Henry VIII clauses that I have read. It provides that if the Secretary of State chooses so to do on whatever whim may have affected his
judgment on the day, he can change just about everything in the Bill that relates to advances in technology by electronic means. We want some definitions from the Minister of exactly what those changes may be. ''Electronic means'' covers an enormous range of current and likely developments.
The amendment would at least give some breathing space to what will become law. The Government are looking to bring in some of the legislation applying to advertisements two months after Royal Assent. That could well be before the end of 2002, so it seems only right that they should have set down something that will be appropriate for at least a good few years to come. Albeit that we have severe reservations about other matters that are not properly qualified or defined under the Bill, there should at least be a four-year run before the Secretary of State can don his Henry VIII cap and, on a whim owing to a development in e-technology, change everything. That is only reasonable.
We shall want to scrutinise other parts of the Bill, given that the Government want special dispensations for the advertising promotion ban and the sponsorship ban not to apply to certain sports until a later date. It is reasonable therefore that the Secretary of State should limit himself to dealing with what we have passed into law for at least the next four years, rather than suddenly deciding because of a development in e-technology—of which he may or may not now be aware—to bring in more strenuous regulations. We want there to be some leeway so that the Bill can bed in. If the Government have not prepared it for the next four years, the Bill is not worth the paper on which it is written. We should add that rider to the Bill, unhappy though we are with the entire clause, the reasons for which we shall advance in the clause stand part debate.