Clause 4 - Additional smoke-free places
Health Bill
10:35 am
Caroline Flint (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health; Don Valley, Labour)
Thank you, Lady Winterton. I am looking forward to a constructive and productive week ahead.
Clause 4 will allow regulations to be made to designate additional smoke-free places and the circumstances in which they are to be smoke-free. That is important, because although the thrust of the Bill is substantially to make workplaces and public places smoke-free, it emerged from the consultation and from other representations that there might be places that did not fit neatly into the definitions of “enclosed” or “substantially enclosed”, in respect of which flexibility to regulate should be available.
We have already discussed the sort of places that could be covered by regulation, setting out, for example, when a football ground or open-air concert venue is to be smoke-free. Such criteria may be based on the density of the audience or on the type of entertainment. Entrances to buildings have also been brought to our attention. People have voiced concerns about walking through a cloud of smoke on their way into a building.
I do, however, take on board the point made by the hon. Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison), and it is not the Government’s intention to pursue trivial matters. That is why we have made it clear in the clause that the regulations may provide for places to be smoke-free only in the circumstances outlined in paragraphs (a) to (d). The regulations will be subject to affirmative resolution, and there will also be consultation on the draft regulations.
I hope that I have clarified the thinking behind the clause and that the Committee will support it.