Clause 3 - Exemptions
Health Bill
1:00 pm
Caroline Flint (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health; Don Valley, Labour)
In terms of smoke-free coverage—the number of public places and workplaces covered—the Bill take us much further forward. More people have access to such places, and therefore have choice. The Bill takes us further forward than an approved code of practice that the Health and Safety Commission consulted on in 1998-99.
I remind the hon. Gentleman that the Bill is primarily about health and choice. As I have said, it is not a narrowly defined Bill about employee protection, although the fact that more employees will work in a smoke-free environment is clearly a by-product of these measures. For the first time we will have legislation with regulations that makes sure that all workers are better protected than they are now. That includes employees working in bars, where there is currently no legislation or regulations that formally make the case by saying what has to be done to protect employees in the bar area.
This is a complex issue. Even countries with total ban legislation—Ireland, and in the future Scotland, I presume—have recognised that there will have to be exemptions, and because of those exemptions there is the possibility that employees will come into contact with smoke. That may be for very short periods—perhaps only a few minutes—but for some it could be for considerably longer. We need to deal with that matter sensitively, while recognising that in certain circumstances it is unavoidable that employees will come into contact with smoke.