New Clause 2 - Age of sale
Health Bill
6:30 pm
George Young (North West Hampshire, Conservative)
This appears to be the last debate on this part the Bill. It is important because it deals with a subject that we have not touched on so far. I am conscious in moving the new clause that I am treading all over the flower beds so carefully prepared by the hon. Member for Barnsley, East and Mexborough (Jeff Ennis). I pay tribute to his work. I reread his speech on 18 October when he introduced his ten-minute Bill. He may want to draw on the material that he deployed then. He also touched on the subject on Second Reading.
The new clause would give the Government the powers to raise the minimum legal age for buying cigarettes from 16 to, probably, 18. It would achieve that by allowing them to issue regulations under the Bill that amend the legal age for buying cigarettes specified in the Children and Young Persons (Protection from Tobacco) Act 1991. The new clause differs from the hon. Gentleman’s, which is more prescriptive. He would move the age to 18 and do so now, while mine would permit the Government to raise the minimum legal age at a later date to whichever age they might choose. If it were left to me it would be a higher age than is likely to emerge from the Government.
I said on Second Reading that what the tobacco industry fears is not so much price increases and health warnings, useful though they are, but statements from society that smoking is an unacceptable habit in a public place and that tobacco is a product that it is illegal to sell and consume in certain circumstances. Those are more effective steps to the non-smoking paradise that I mentioned.
Raising the legal buying age would be a modestly useful measure that might have some impact on teenage smoking rates. However, it should not be a substitute for a comprehensive piece of legislation that ends smoking in all workplaces and enclosed public places. I am slightly suspicious that the Government have chosen to trial the proposal in a way that was clearly designed to distract attention from the difficulties that they faced with the exemptions in clause 3.
Last Thursday, just before the Committee voted on the exemption for pubs that do not sell food, the Minister announced that there would be a consultation on whether to raise the legal age for buying cigarettes from 16 to 18. That was an astonishingly timely initiative, which went beyond what she said on the subject only on 29 November in reply to the debate on Second Reading. She said that the consultation on increasing the age limit for cigarettes and other tobacco products would be carried out next year. Clearly, if that consultation is to be meaningful, she will need powers in the Bill to change the age if that is what the result of the consultation indicates. My new clause helpfully provides that opportunity.
In response to the announcement, the Press Association said last week:
“The move follows reports that the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, was considering backing a Labour backbench plan to ban the sale of cigarettes to under-18s, bringing the law in line with alcohol sales. This would also bring Britain into line with other European Union countries and the US.”
It then quoted what was said in the press release:
“We will consider carefully the results of that consultation before making a final decision”
and continued
“Her comments came during the committee stage of the health bill, which will impose a partial smoking ban in public places—with pubs that do not serve food and private members’ clubs exempt from the ban. Doctors’ leaders, anti-smoking groups and many backbench MPs have described the partial ban as ‘half measures’. The pressure group Action on Smoking and Health described the idea of increasing the age limit for tobacco sales as a ‘cynical’ measure to appease backbench MPs who want the government to introduce a total ban on people lighting up in public places.”
I would never accuse the Government of anything so devious.
The new clause is a complementary measure, not an alternative to a ban. The Government must not seek to use it as a bargaining counter to avoid a ban in pubs that do not sell food. Survey evidence from the Office for National Statistics shows that in 2004, 9,000 11 to 15-year-olds and 21 per cent. of 15-year-olds—26 per cent. of girls and 16 per cent. of boys—smoked regularly. That is despite the fact that the legal buying age is 16. In 1998, the Government set a target to reduce the prevalence of regular smoking among young people aged 11 to 15 from a base line of 13 per cent. in 1996 to 11 per cent. by 2005 and 9 per cent. or less by 2010. The proportion of 16 to 19-year-olds who smoke is currently 26 per cent. About 450 children start smoking every day. More than 80 per cent. of smokers took up the habit as teenagers.
There is some evidence that increasing the legal buying age may discourage young people from starting to smoke. The island of Guernsey raised the age for buying cigarettes from 16 to 18 in the late 1990s. Other measures were also introduced to tackle smoking, including a targeted education programme in schools and higher taxes on cigarettes. Smoking rates among young people on the island have halved since 1997 and only 19 per cent. of adults smoke. Joanne Staples, co-ordinator of the Guernsey Adolescent Smoke-free Project—GASP—has been quoted as saying that raising the age limit has made it more difficult for children to buy cigarettes, which is what one would expect.
However, Guernsey is a small island, where the enforcement of such age restrictions is relatively straightforward. Enforcement across England and Wales would be more challenging. In 2004–05, trading standards services prosecuted 117 retailers for selling cigarettes to children aged under 16. The retailers received penalties ranging from only a conditional discharge to fines of up to £1,000. Many more received cautions. If the Government smile on my new clause—I bring up a point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Westbury—will they give local authorities the resources that they need for trading standards officers to enforce a new law? Will the penalties for breaching the law match the seriousness of the offence?
Although raising the legal buying age may be useful, the most effective way to get young people not to smoke is to persuade adults to quit. Young people generally start to smoke because they regard it as an adult activity. Putting the equivalent of an 18 certificate on cigarettes obviously will not have much impact in persuading them to the contrary. That is why a workplace smoking law that is truly comprehensive will have more effect than raising the legal buying age. As we have heard, children are three times as likely to smoke if both their parents smoke. Parents’ approval or disapproval of the habit is also a significant factor.
When the hon. Member for Barnsley, East and Mexborough catches your eye, Lady Winterton, he will draw parallels with the Gambling Act 2005, under which some gaming machines will now be restricted to the over-18s, and the Violent Crime Reduction Bill, which raises to 18 the age at which airguns and some knives can be sold. I am sure that he will also give the views of the Trading Standards Institute, which wants the age limit for the sale of cigarettes to be raised to 18.
I know that the Committee is anxious to make progress. I simply say in conclusion that new clause 2 should be supported because it would enable the Government to conduct a meaningful consultation on youth smoking and, after that consultation, to raise the legal age at a future date without primary legislation.