Children and Families Bill

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff Excerpts

Monday 18th November 2013 Grand Committee

Moved by

[Baroness Finlay of Llandaff]

263: After Clause 88, insert the following new Clause—
“Offence of failing to prevent smoking in a private vehicle when children are present
(1) The Health Act 2006 is amended as follows.
(2) After section 8 insert—
“8A Offence of failing to prevent smoking in a private vehicle when children are present
(1) It is the duty of any person who drives a private vehicle to ensure that that vehicle is smoke-free whenever a child or children under the age of 18 are in such vehicle or part of such vehicle.
(2) A person who fails to comply with the duty in subsection (1) commits an offence.
(3) A person convicted of an offence under this section who has not previously been convicted of such an offence shall have the option of attending a smoke-free driving awareness course in place of paying a fine under subsection (4).
(4) A person who does not wish to attend an awareness course or who has previously been convicted of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to a fine of £60.
(5) The Secretary of State may introduce regulations to alter the level of penalty payable under subsection (4).
(6) The Secretary of State shall update all relevant regulations regarding the offence created under subsection (2) within six months of this section coming into force.
(7) The Secretary of State shall introduce regulations within six months of this section coming into force to prescribe the format of the awareness course in subsection (3).”
(3) In section 79(4)(a), for “or 8(7)” substitute “, 8(7), or 8A(5)”.”

[Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)]

My Lords, I will be as brief as I can, and my noble friend—as I must say for the purposes of these amendments—Lord Faulkner of Worcester will speak to Amendments 264, 265 and 266, which are now in this group.

The amendment I have tabled builds on the work of the noble Lord, Lord Ribeiro, who took a Private Member’s Bill through the Lords last summer, and that built on the work of Alex Cunningham MP in 2001, who introduced a 10-minute rule Bill.

This topic of children in cars where people are smoking has been around for some time. The amendment puts the onus of responsibility on the person in charge—that is, the driver of the vehicle. Children who are strapped into a car—as they have to be by law, for their protection—have little or no control over the smoking behaviour of adults in their presence. The British Lung Foundation did a survey of 1,000 children aged eight to 15: 51% had been exposed to cigarette smoke in the car. Of those who had been exposed, 31% reported having asked the people smoking to stop, but 34% were too frightened or embarrassed to ask even though they wanted the person not to smoke.

Smoking in a car is a particular concern because it is a confined space. We all know the hazards of passive smoking. Indeed, we have legislated against it. What we are now doing, however, is leaving children at higher risk than adults were exposed to before. Research has shown that a single cigarette smoked in a moving car with a window half open exposes a child in the centre of the back seat to around two-thirds as much second-hand smoke as in an average smoke-filled pub, in the bad old days when people smoked in pubs. Importantly, however, if someone is smoking in a stationary car with the windows closed, the level increases to 11 times that of a smoky pub.

There is clear evidence that cigarette smoke damages children’s lungs. They have smaller, more fragile lungs; they breathe more quickly and their immune system is less developed. It has been estimated that there are more than 165 new episodes of diseases of all types in children caused by passive smoking, which they are exposed to in such high concentrations primarily in cars, although they may also be exposed at home. This has been estimated to culminate, tragically, in about 40 sudden infant deaths a year, quite apart from about 300,000 primary care consultations and almost 10,000 hospital admissions. It costs us £23 million a year in primary care visits and hospital treatment, particularly asthma treatment. There is a catalogue of case reports about children who have had such severe asthma that they have suffered respiratory arrest. When the parent has stopped smoking in the car—the environment in which the child was exposed—their asthma has improved enough to be controlled. The Department of Health ran a two-month marketing campaign to try to raise awareness but I suggest that the next step has to be legislation.

Children are a protected party in law. Seatbelt-wearing rates increased in the UK from 25% to 91% after legislation was introduced alongside awareness campaigns. Children want this legislation: in the British Lung Foundation survey in 2011, 86% of children aged eight to 15 said they wanted the Government to introduce a law to protect them from cigarette smoke in a car. That is almost nine in 10 children. In another survey, done on Mumsnet, 86% of respondents supported a ban, including 83% of those who were themselves smokers. An ASH-YouGov survey of public opinion showed 78% out of more than 10,000 respondents saying they would support a ban in cars carrying children under 18, even though over 60% of those respondents were themselves smokers.

We are exposing children now to a very high risk of smoke through passive smoking. It is time to address that. I beg to move.