Results 1-20 of 33 for smoking speaker:Eric Forth

Disabled Children's Assessment and Services: Disabled Children's Assessment and Services (14 Feb 2006)

Eric Forth: ..., if the House cannot vote on my amendment, some of us might be obliged to vote against the Bill on Third Reading, which would be most unfortunate, because it would mean a confusion between the smoking elements in part 1 and the rest of the Bill, which is—I have no doubt—admirable. I hope that you will give consideration to allowing a division on amendment No. 8, so that the...

Orders of the Day — Health Bill (29 Nov 2005)

Eric Forth: ...I see no reason why proprietors and work forces in offices, factories, restaurants and pubs should not be able to get together to make their own decisions about whether their premises should allow smoking, ban smoking or allow different things in different parts of the premises. Last night, I went to St. Stephen's tavern, right next door to us here in Westminster, to assess the...

Orders of the Day — Health Bill (29 Nov 2005)

Eric Forth: In exactly that context, does my hon. Friend know whether there will be a total ban on smoking in prisons in Wales and Northern Ireland in order to protect the health of prison warders?

Orders of the Day — Smoking in Public Places (Wales) Bill (18 Mar 2005)

Mr Eric Forth: ...large. That is my starting position, and I try to stick to it whenever I possibly can. The arguments here go much wider than that, however. Of course it is right that we should inform people that smoking will damage their health. Similarly, many other things damage health. A reference was made to the risks attached to smoking in the home, but it must be well known to right hon. and hon....

Orders of the Day — Smoking in Public Places (Wales) Bill (18 Mar 2005)

Mr Eric Forth: ...National Assembly for Wales should be the key decision-making body in this case. That is not an uncontestable statement. In my view, when we are considering whether to place restrictions or bans on smoking, in the workplace or elsewhere, we should really ask ourselves, "What is the best mechanism for doing that? Where should that decision properly be made?" Obviously, there are a number of...

Orders of the Day — Smoking in Public Places (Wales) Bill (18 Mar 2005)

Mr Eric Forth: ...before I came to the House in 1983. I have therefore managed to represent three distinct groups of people so far, and counting. The real question is whether the decision on banning or restricting smoking, as posed by the Bill, is properly taken at regional level. Our debate today has illustrated very well that there are real problems, not simply in the small print of the various Acts that...

Orders of the Day — Smoking in Public Places (Wales) Bill (18 Mar 2005)

Mr Eric Forth: ...leads us finally to a workplace decision. The hon. Member for Cardiff, North told us that one chain of public houses had made its own decision, on a commercial basis, to declare all its premises smoke free. I respect that decision and wish the chain well. As I told the hon. Member for Bridgend (Mr. Griffiths), it has always puzzled me that the 75 per cent. of people in this country who...

Orders of the Day — Smoking in Public Places (Wales) Bill (18 Mar 2005)

Mr Eric Forth: ...the workplace. Since the Tea Room is almost as much my workplace as this Chamber is, I know exactly what the right hon. Gentleman is saying. I replied to that questionnaire by voting no to banning smoking because I believe that it should be allowed in large areas of this building. I await the day when the health fascists start saying that we should ban smoking in the Smoking Room. That...

Orders of the Day — Smoking in Public Places (Wales) Bill (18 Mar 2005)

Mr Eric Forth: ...if the Government's rhetoric about full employment is to be believed, people have a choice as to where they work. It is surely perfectly open to any individual applying for a job to inquire whether smoking is allowed in the premises in which they would work, and to make their decision accordingly. Such freedom, I think, still exists, and if there is indeed full employment in this...

Orders of the Day — Smoking in Public Places (Wales) Bill (18 Mar 2005)

Mr Eric Forth: .... Our questionnaire, funnily enough, is a good example. I see nothing wrong—indeed, I see much virtue—in asking people, workplace by workplace, what they think about a total ban on smoking throughout the premises or the allocation of part of the premises, properly ventilated, for smoking. Incidentally, I do not agree with Labour Members and, in particular, with the hon. Member...

Orders of the Day — Smoking in Public Places (Wales) Bill (18 Mar 2005)

Mr Eric Forth: ..., manager or other person for the time being in charge of the place) to whom a complaint may be made by a member of the public for the time being present in the place who observes another person smoking in that place in contravention of a prohibition or a restriction." That is classic gobbledegook of a kind that we are inevitably led to when we attempt to legislate in this area. This...

Orders of the Day — Smoking in Public Places (Wales) Bill (18 Mar 2005)

Mr Eric Forth: If the 75 per cent. of people in this country who do not smoke all went only to no-smoking premises— the hon. Member for Cardiff, North (Julie Morgan) mentioned that a chain of pubs has decided to go down that route—would that not go a long way to solving the problem?

Orders of the Day — Smoking in Public Places (Wales) Bill (18 Mar 2005)

Mr Eric Forth: ...clause—I hope to return to this issue in some detail if I catch your eye, Mr. Deputy Speaker—suggests that my hon. and learned Friend's premises would have to carry signs prohibiting smoking and that, as the person in charge, he would be subject to all sorts of penalties. That is to say nothing of the other detailed provisions in clause 3. Is that my hon. and learned Friend's...

Orders of the Day — Smoking in Public Places (Wales) Bill (18 Mar 2005)

Mr Eric Forth: To take up the hon. Lady's response to my hon. and learned Friend's question, why should her Bill not be called "Smoking in Workplaces (Wales) Bill", which is more logical and might well solve many of the problems that my hon. and learned Friend has already identified? It focuses attention on the problem at workplaces. I am not saying that I would agree with it even in that form, but if we...

Orders of the Day — Smoking in Public Places (Wales) Bill (18 Mar 2005)

Mr Eric Forth: It is probably a coincidence, but the 25 per cent. of the people in Wales who expressed support for devolution may or may not be the same 25 per cent. who still smoke. We may never know. Was my hon. and learned Friend as unimpressed as I was by the claim that a majority of Members of the Assembly want more powers? Does he agree that most respectable political bodies at all levels want more...

Orders of the Day — Christmas Day (Trading) Bill: New Clause 1 — Cultural and Non-Christian Exemption (18 Jun 2004)

Mr Eric Forth: ...want everyone to be as free as possible to do what they wanted to do of their own free will. I apply that argument to all sorts of subjects, and I suspect that we shall come to that when we debate smoking and other matters. However, that argument is overlaid by the profound cultural considerations that arise in discussion of the matter before us today. The very title of the new clause,...

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Passive Smoking (9 Dec 2003)

Mr Eric Forth: What estimate has the Minister made of the loss of revenue for each percentage drop in smoking in the population at large? What proposals does she or the Chancellor have for making good the revenues lost every time people stop smoking?

Aviation (Offences) Bill (7 Feb 2003)

Mr Eric Forth: ...is helpful for the House to hear them. However, do we have any idea what the categories of "significant" and "serious" mean? The definitions can be arbitrary. As we have learned from the example of smoking, I do not think that anyone would argue that finding someone smoking in the lavatory on an aircraft—however serious an offence it may be—is the sort of thing that should be...

Aviation (Offences) Bill (7 Feb 2003)

Mr Eric Forth: ...whether the figures are going up or down. On the seriousness of the incidents, my hon. Friend the Member for New Forest, West (Mr. Swayne) asked whether a significant number were caused by people smoking in lavatories. The figure that I have is 36 per cent., or one in three. That activity may be in breach of the law—for example, United States federal law certainly prohibits smoking...

Aviation (Offences) Bill (7 Feb 2003)

Mr Eric Forth: ...am not aware of many violent smokers, so the issue applies only to drink. That is what we are considering, although I do not think that we should be sidetracked into reopening the issue of whether smoking on aircraft is a good or a bad thing. In the United States, a solution that has been tried is all-smoking flights. That is an interesting thought, but I do not think that the idea ever...