Clause 5 - Vehicles
Health Bill
10:35 am
Caroline Flint (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health; Don Valley, Labour)
I was referring to the fact that there are further amendments that apply to this clause, and that we will, therefore, have further discussions as the debate continues on types of vehicles, and so forth. I do not necessarily wish to have the debates on the further amendments during discussion of this one, which covers a technical point. I do not wish to steal anyone’s thunder in relation to further amendments to clause 5.
The hon. Member for Westbury was correct to say that when I saw the amendment in the name of the hon. Member for Northavon I asked officials what the significant reason was for using “may” rather than “shall”. I shall give a technical answer to that and at the same time try to elaborate a little more on the intention behind the clause.
Subsection (1) gives the Secretary of State or the National Assembly for Wales power to make regulations providing for smoke-free vehicles. We intend that public vehicles and vehicles for work use will be smoke-free. We believe that that will provide consistency with the protection from second-hand smoke in substantially enclosed public places and workplaces. The regulations will set out the descriptions of the vehicles that are to be smoke-free and the circumstances and specified areas in which they are to be smoke-free. Vehicles used at a place of work such as taxis, delivery vans, post vans, buses and trains will be smoke-free unless they are for the sole use of the owner-driver. As I said earlier, I am sure that there will be more discussion on that when we come to later groups of amendments.
Whereas the clause provides a power to make such regulations, the amendment would place on us a duty to do so. I understand that it is normal practice to confer powers to make regulations in order to leave us some discretion as to when we introduce them, but I assure the hon. Member for Northavon that we intend to use the power to introduce regulations for smoke-free vehicles.
On a drafting point, advice from counsel is that if we were to say “shall” rather than “may”, we would also need to specify a deadline for the regulations to be made, which the amendment does not provide. If the purpose of the amendment is to seek clarity about our intention, I hope that I have reassured the hon. Gentleman about that intention.