Liverpool City Council (Prohibition of Smoking in Places of Work) Bill [HL]

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 8:47 pm on 20 July 2005.

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Photo of Lord Dixon-Smith Lord Dixon-Smith Spokespersons In the Lords, Environment, Food & Rural Affairs 8:47, 20 July 2005

My Lords, the House will be relieved to hear that I can be relatively brief, as my noble friends Lord Naseby and Lord Skelmersdale have already said much of what I wished to say. On 5 July, only a fortnight ago, we found ourselves discussing the London Local Authorities Bill. I am fascinated as to why the London local authorities did not get their act together and go with one London local authorities Bill.

That Bill suffered from the same problem as these Bills. It has been overtaken by subsequent government legislation, which is even more positive than what is happening to these Bills. At the moment, they are subject only to future government legislation. The London Local Authorities Bill was introduced to the House in 2004, it was overtaken by government legislation earlier this year and parts of it will have to be completely excised from the Bill.

These Bills are brought before us for discussion and we know we have a government White Paper. We have a Queen's Speech pledge to introduce legislation and that legislation is coming. I am looking forward to the reply of the noble Baroness, Lady Royall, and to hearing how we should handle this dilemma.

I would not go so far as to believe that it would be appropriate to oppose these Bills at this stage, but it would be perfectly reasonable to suggest that the business managers of the House will need to consider whether we should give time to these Bills when we know that government legislation is on its way. Private Bill Committees are very thorough and very time-consuming. They employ a lot of expertise and it means that the petitioners incur a great deal of cost as well. If that were made unnecessary, I am sure that there would be general rejoicing in the world outside.

There is one other point that we should realise about the Bills. They will do nothing to reduce inequality, as has been pointed out already. Of course, there will be an element of equality in the areas where they are applied, but they will not cover the country. We know that a number of boroughs will not apply the London Bill, and that figure will probably rise. Frankly, my mind quails at the prospect of an endless series of local authority Bills, seriatim, going through the House, all petitioned against, as they almost certainly would be. Using the local authority route, it would be years before there was any solution to the problem.

That is a powerful argument for at least not expediting the procedure on these Bills. I look forward to hearing what the noble Baroness has to say so that we may know rather more about what the Government have in mind.