Clause 22
Health Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Stephen O'Brien (Shadow Minister, Health; Eddisbury, Conservative)
My hon. Friend is giving an important introduction to this broad area that will be discussed again on Report. For those of us who have both smoked and given up twice, the only thing that keeps us from starting again is the prospect of having to give up again. I started relatively late, but it is clear that vending machines are an easy source for those who are too young to buy cigarettes. At that stage, people are not fussed about whether they are getting value for money; they just want access to cigarettes.
My hon. Friend is making the important point that we should consider measures to ameliorate the problem, rather than be draconian and impact on the freedom to choose. Vending machines tend to be on the corridor on the way to the gents, which is out of sight of almost everybody. That means that people are able to get cigarettes without any kind of penalty or fear.