[Mr. Eric Illsley in the Chair]
Health Bill
11:00 am
Caroline Flint (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health; Don Valley, Labour)
No, we are trying to define work space. Someone who works in a smoke-free building can avail themselves of opportunities to go outside the building to have a cigarette. By the same token, someone who is driving a car or a truck can avail himself of a break in which he can smoke.
I am not an expert in this area, but I suggest that lorry drivers are encouraged to take breaks from driving to maintain their safety standards and avoid getting tired. As lorry drivers and others are encouraged to take breaks, they have an opportunity to have a cigarette at the same time, if they wish. Therefore, we are not applying a different rule to this group of workers from the one that we are applying to workers in other enclosed spaces. If we were to follow the arguments made by the hon. Members for Mid-Bedfordshire (Mrs. Dorries) and for Westbury, we would establish an unnecessary distinction between working spaces.
I disagree with the hon. Member for Mid-Bedfordshire here. We are talking about a work space. While there are some limited exemptions in the Bill, I am not prepared to support an exemption in this respect. However, I must make it clear that we are not talking about private car space. The hon. Member for Westbury gave an example earlier about car sharing and pooling. If someone with a private car offers friends a lift into work, no payment is exchanged, so it is not a business transaction. Therefore it is for those people to decide whether to accept a lift.
The hon. Member for Northavon gave an example of private hire car use. If a driver was employed to drive the minibus for the hon. Gentleman’s parents’ organisation, I should expect the vehicle to be non-smoking. The exception would be where people hire a rental car for their own purposes. I think that I am right in saying that private vehicles rented without a driver have not been included in Ireland’s smoking ban. That approach is also being taken in Scotland. We view a private car that is hired without a driver as being closer to a private car than a vehicle in which someone is working. That example would resemble some exemptions that we have looked at for hotel rooms or rental cottages in which smoking may be allowed.