Clause 3 - Exemptions
Health Bill
3:15 pm
Caroline Flint (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health; Don Valley, Labour)
I think that we have made it clear that we have brought forward the timetable for major implementation in these areas to summer 2007, although I hasten to add that we wish the NHS and Government Departments to do that much earlier.
Something else is unclear in the statement of the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire. He talks about waiting three years and then introducing legislation, but he does not make it clear when the legislation would come into force following that. It would be interesting to get further information on that. Was he suggesting that the Conservative party would introduce a total ban within three years of 2005 if self-regulation did not work? The hon. Gentleman did not make that clear, and I am certain that it is not clear to Conservative Members on the Back Benches or to party members outside this place.