Clause 3 - Exemptions
Health Bill
1:00 pm
Caroline Flint (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health; Don Valley, Labour)
Interestingly, the hon. Gentleman again draws attention to the fact that there are different ways of tackling the issue. I cannot speak for France, but my understanding is that Italy does allow smoking rooms, and the Italian Government will have to choose whether they want to legislate about ventilation there. For the reasons that I have outlined, we have not chosen to pursue that path. We have said clearly that we intend to review the legislation, and its exemptions, from day one. We do not, therefore, want to burden or over-regulate the exempted premises while we are still considering the situation. That position has been understood by those in industry. Our consultation during the summer included a question on ventilation, and many people said that they did not want to be directed to spend a lot of money on ventilation if they were likely to choose to be smoke-free.
Let us not forget that nobody is preventing any of the exempted establishments from becoming smoke-free. We have merely been mindful of the direction in which we feel that policy is developing. We have, therefore, worked on the basis that more places will become smoke-free rather than trying to come up with a system in law that would say something like, “You’re all right,” or “You could be safer if you had this sort of ventilation in your establishment.”