Results 1-11 of 11 for smoking speaker:Mr Howard Flight

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Gershon Review (13 May 2004)

Mr Howard Flight: ...was wrong about UK administrative costs, which are up by 8.5 per cent. as a percentage of total spending. Are the Government serious about Gershon, or is the £20 billion-worth of savings just smoke and mirrors?

Public Bill Committee: Finance Bill: Clause 1 - Rates of tobacco products duty (6 May 2004)

Mr Howard Flight: I declare an interest: I am probably the only person present who has been smoking for more than 40 years. The current strategy, which has been adopted by Governments from the two main parties, has run out of steam. No one is yet putting in place a new strategy and no one has modelled the effect on consumption or revenues of moving duty in the other direction. However, it must be acknowledged...

Public Bill Committee: Finance Bill: Clause 1 - Rates of tobacco products duty (14 May 2002)

Mr Howard Flight: ...the key parts of the Taylor report. The strategy followed since 1997 has, very clearly, been to up the duty and up the price of cigarettes by more than is sensible if the aims are to discourage smoking and to have regard to tax revenue.

Public Bill Committee: Finance Bill: Clause 1 - Rates of tobacco products duty (14 May 2002)

Mr Howard Flight: Does the hon. Gentleman really believe that such a measure would reduce smoking? The crucial point is that smoking has increased due to the higher prices of the past five years and the resultant impact on smuggling. I have asked the Minister what he expects the outcome to be. Will the angle that the hon. Gentleman advocates be counter-productive?

Public Bill Committee: Finance Bill: Clause 1 - Rates of tobacco products duty (14 May 2002)

Mr Howard Flight: ...today, Mr. Gale. I should probably declare an interest as perhaps one of the few smokers present. Does the Financial Secretary have any estimates of the Government's objective in terms of reducing smoking? We know that the revenue objective is a reduction of £100 million, but we do not know what reduction in smoking they expect to achieve. I shall, for what it is worth, fall in...

Pension Annuities (Amendment) Bill (11 Jan 2002)

Mr Howard Flight: I thank my hon. Friend, but I believe that the market is more flexible than that. In view of my record on cigarette smoking, I am one of the few people who could buy an attractive annuity because of the reduction in my life expectancy. Somewhere in government, there seems to be an objection in principle to the idea that people should be able to pass on to their children anything from their...

Public Bill Committee: Finance Bill: Clause 4 - Rates of tobacco products duty (26 Apr 2001)

Mr Howard Flight: ...debating the imposition of an increase in duty on tobacco. We are not debating cannabis but whether the duty policies that are being followed are being effective in their objective of both reducing smoking and generating the maximum revenue. My assertion is common sense and should be accepted by every hon. Member. Indeed, Government figures show that the results of the pricing policy to...

Public Bill Committee: Finance Bill: Clause 4 - Rates of tobacco products duty (26 Apr 2001)

Mr Howard Flight: ...went off the rails a long time ago. Instead of achieving its objectives, it has led to the undesirable development of a Russian-style smuggling mafia, and many more young people have taken up smoking than might otherwise have been the case. It is time for a breath of fresh air in both Westminster and Whitehall, and I hope that, by coming off the escalator, the Government are signalling a...

Public Bill Committee: Finance Bill: Clause 4 - Rates of tobacco products duty (26 Apr 2001)

Mr Howard Flight: ...of tobacco has become counter-productive. I should declare an interest as a smoker—I should also welcome your chairing our deliberations, Dr. Clark. Over the past four years, cigarette smoking has gone up by 6.5 per cent. The Government sneaked out some figures earlier this month announcing that the revenue loss has been £3.7 billion. Theoretically, the tax on cigarettes should...

Orders of the Day — Finance Bill (17 Apr 2000)

Mr Howard Flight: ...by coffee smuggling. More seriously, the tobacco duty increase bears hardest on the least fortunate members of society. I should perhaps declare an interest in the matter and in the Bill as a whole, both personally as a smoker and as a director of companies. Hon. Members will know that, although some people can buy cigarettes or wine abroad, single parents and many others who smoke and...

Petitions: Drugs (2 Jun 1999)

Mr Howard Flight: ...enough to visit Baalbek, where the temple of Bacchus was decorated with grapes and poppy seeds. Drugs have been with us for a very long time. We grew up reading of Sherlock Holmes, for example, who smoked his pipe of cocaine when he wanted to clear his brain after solving a crime. In the past 100 years attitudes have changed. Previously, laudanum and opium-based drugs, and cocaine...