Results 1-20 of 59 for smoking speaker:Patricia Hewitt

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Smoking Ban (26 Jun 2007)

Patricia Hewitt: ...Minister with responsibility for public health and officials have worked tirelessly, with local authorities, businesses and others, to prepare for implementation. As a result, I believe that going smoke-free in England next Sunday will be just as successful as it has already been in the rest of the United Kingdom.

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Smoking Ban (26 Jun 2007)

Patricia Hewitt: .... I pay particular tribute to my hon. Friend the Minister with responsibility for public health and to my hon. Friend for their contribution. Researchers in Scotland have already found that going smoke-free has had an immediate and positive impact on the health of bar workers. We will see similar effects in England, and over time thousands of people's lives will be saved, reinforcing the...

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Smoking Ban (26 Jun 2007)

Patricia Hewitt: I readily congratulate Newham borough council on the excellent work that it and local authorities up and down the country have done to prepare for the smoking ban. As a result, not only does almost every business know that it needs to make preparations for going smoke-free on Sunday, but almost every member of the public is aware of the change to come. I am delighted that thousands of people...

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Smoking Ban (26 Jun 2007)

Patricia Hewitt: The hon. Gentleman makes an extremely important point. One of the compelling pieces of evidence from the chief medical officer was that even second-hand smoke, over quite a short space of time, can have a disastrous effect on people's heart health. Conversely, going smoke-free will save thousands of people's lives and save thousands of families from the grief of the premature death of a...

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Smoking Ban (26 Jun 2007)

Patricia Hewitt: ...my right hon. Friend for that question. I also thank him for, and congratulate him on, the superb work that he and his Select Committee did in securing such a large cross-party majority for going smoke-free. I am happy to assure him that we not only endorse the draft guidelines for the WHO framework convention, but have played an active role in developing them. We will support the adoption...

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Smoking Ban (26 Jun 2007)

Patricia Hewitt: I am sorry that at a time when, thanks to a stunningly large majority in the House, to which the hon. Gentleman contributed, England is about to go smoke-free, he takes the tone that he does. We have taken the view, and Parliament took the view, that given that prison is akin to an individual's own home, it was right to take the approach that we did, but it is also right, and absolutely...

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Smoking Ban (26 Jun 2007)

Patricia Hewitt: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I am glad to say that the NHS in England is already seeing an increase in the number of people who are coming forward and asking for support from stop smoking services. With more than £8 billion of additional funding going into the NHS this year, I have no doubt at all that primary care trusts all over the country will be ensuring that stop smoking...

Opposition Day — [12th allotted day]: Secretary of State for Health (23 May 2007)

Patricia Hewitt: The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, although Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, stresses the point that the impact of smoking, including second-hand smoke, can show up extremely quickly—within a year or two—in coronary heart disease. Part of the improvements we have been making in the NHS is the much bigger investment in "stop smoking" services, which have...

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Macular Degeneration (6 Feb 2007)

Patricia Hewitt: My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I readily congratulate that team on its excellent research. The introduction of smoke-free legislation later this year will be an important step forward in public health generally, and specifically in reducing the risk of other people acquiring that appalling condition in future. We will, of course, redouble our efforts to get across the message about...

Cancer Services (1 Mar 2006)

Patricia Hewitt: ...be summed up very simply: prevent more, diagnose early and treat fast. I want to say something about what we have already done and what we must do on each of the three elements. We all know that smoking is the largest single cause of cancer deaths in the United Kingdom. The ban on smoking in enclosed public places, on which the House recently decided by an overwhelming majority, will be...

Orders of the Day — Health Bill: Schedule 8 — Minor and consequential amendments (14 Feb 2006)

Patricia Hewitt: ...and outside hospital but will further improve the performance and efficiency of the national health service. Of course, the main focus of our debate and of public attention has been on the Bill's smoking provisions. This evening, the House voted absolutely decisively to introduce a complete ban on smoking in all enclosed public places and workplaces, including all licensed premises and...

Orders of the Day — Health Bill: New Clause 5 — Smoke-free premises: exemptions (14 Feb 2006)

Patricia Hewitt: As I shall explain, new clause 5 is expressly designed to include under the smoking ban all pubs and licensed premises, including those that do not serve food. The details of the limited range of exemptions for long-term residential homes, hospices, mental health hospitals for adults and so on will be consulted on and set out in regulations. All such regulations will be subject to the...

Orders of the Day — Health Bill: New Clause 5 — Smoke-free premises: exemptions (14 Feb 2006)

Patricia Hewitt: ...little more progress before I take further interventions. We have begun to explore two controversial issues. There is the question of whether all pubs and licensed premises should be covered by the smoking ban, or whether, as we originally proposed, those that do not serve food should be exempt. Unlike clause 3, new clause 5 would not allow any exemption to be made for licensed premises....

Orders of the Day — Health Bill: New Clause 5 — Smoke-free premises: exemptions (14 Feb 2006)

Patricia Hewitt: ...protecting people's freedom of choice on the other. One such balance is reflected in clause 3, but I and many of my hon. Friends believe that it would be better to achieve the balance of imposing a smoking ban on all licensed premises, regardless of whether they serve food.

Orders of the Day — Health Bill: New Clause 5 — Smoke-free premises: exemptions (14 Feb 2006)

Patricia Hewitt: ...Under-Secretary has tabled amendments (a) and (b) to (d) to the new clause. Those amendments, taken together, would not allow any exemption to be made for private clubs—in other words, the smoking ban would extend to them as well. By "membership clubs" we mean only the qualifying clubs operating with a club premises certificate under the specific rules of the Licensing Act 2003,...

Orders of the Day — Health Bill: New Clause 5 — Smoke-free premises: exemptions (14 Feb 2006)

Patricia Hewitt: ...the hon. Gentleman to talk to the candidates for the leadership of his own party. The hon. Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) said: "Personally, I won't be voting for the smoking ban." The right hon. and learned Member for North-East Fife (Sir Menzies Campbell) said that it is entirely sensible to make some places available for people to smoke in. However, he also...

Orders of the Day — Health Bill: New Clause 5 — Smoke-free premises: exemptions (14 Feb 2006)

Patricia Hewitt: ..., political clubs, military and sporting clubs and so on. I believe that the arguments on membership clubs are very finely balanced. On the one hand, there is a case for making even more places smoke-free and establishing a level playing field for pubs, licensed premises and membership clubs. On the other, there is the case, strongly put to me by many of my own constituents, that a...

Orders of the Day — Health Bill: New Clause 5 — Smoke-free premises: exemptions (14 Feb 2006)

Patricia Hewitt: ...exempt private members' clubs, the regulations that follow—which will be subject, as I said, to the affirmative resolution procedure—will require members to have an annual vote on the smoking issue, and in order to fulfil our manifesto commitment to protect employees even in those exempt premises, smoking will be banned in the bar. Furthermore, we will review those and other...

Orders of the Day — Health Bill: New Clause 5 — Smoke-free premises: exemptions (14 Feb 2006)

Patricia Hewitt: ...and what I said this morning, is that even if membership clubs are exempt following the vote in the House and the final decision of Parliament on that point, in the regulations we will ensure that smoking cannot take place in the bar itself. We will want to consult widely on the precise details of the regulations, and those will come to Parliament through the affirmative resolution procedure.

Orders of the Day — Health Bill: New Clause 5 — Smoke-free premises: exemptions (14 Feb 2006)

Patricia Hewitt: My hon. Friend is right. It is also the case that about 95 per cent. of the deaths that result from passive smoking occur as a result of passive smoking in people's homes, not in public places or in membership clubs.