Cigarette Stick Health Warnings Bill [HL]

Baroness Merron Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 3rd December 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to speak in this Second Reading debate on a Bill on which varying views have been expressed. I fear that the noble Lords, Lord Moylan and Lord Naseby, will be somewhat disappointed in me, but it is a risk I am prepared to take because I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Young, on bringing the Bill forward today. He rightly commands much respect across the House and is a doughty and informed campaigner on this issue.

I am pleased to say that this measure, which was proposed in the other place as an amendment to the Health and Care Bill, has the support of these Benches. It is important to remember why we are talking about it today. We are not talking about it as a measure for a measure’s sake, but as a major contribution to the improvement of people’s health, the reduction of inequalities and people living longer and healthier lives. That is the reason we are discussing it today.

We welcome the Government’s ambition to be smoke-free by 2030, and I hope the Minister will be able to welcome the measures outlined in the Bill. If we look at the 2019 prevention Green Paper, the Government committed to making smoking obsolete, but regrettably there is still no sign of the proposed and promised bold action that they agreed was essential to achieve that extremely challenging shift. There have been great strides in reducing smoking rates and improving people’s health and life expectancy over the past 20 years, but we must acknowledge that a continuing decline in smoking rates is not guaranteed and needs further work. As we have heard, evidence shows that we must constantly renew and refresh our tobacco control strategy to avoid stagnation in smoking rates and a widening of the already significant inequalities in rates between those who are richer and those who are poorer. With only nine years left to end smoking, Cancer Research UK analysis shows that the 2030 target will be missed by seven years and that it will be doubled for the most disadvantaged. I hope that is of concern to this House.

I am pleased to observe that tackling smoking is not a party-political issue. Governments of all stripes have implemented a comprehensive approach to tobacco control, starting at the beginning of this century with banning smoking in public places and in cars carrying children, then the point-of-sale display ban, which I saw through as Minister of Public Health at the time, through to standardised tobacco packaging. They have all helped to drive down smoking rates and have discouraged people, particularly the young, from starting smoking in the first place.

Nowhere is this consensus more evident than in the cross-party support for the Government’s smoke-free 2030 ambition, which if delivered would represent one of the most transformative public health statements and achievements in modern history. It is supported by more than three-quarters of the public, with majority support from voters of all political parties. This suggests a mandate to demand bolder action from the Government to end smoking by 2030.

Ending smoking will improve the quality of people’s health and save millions of lives in decades to come. It will also help to dramatically reduce health inequalities and lift thousands of households out of poverty, making it absolutely central to the levelling-up agenda. Tobacco is the leading cause of health inequalities in our society and is responsible for half the 10-year difference in life expectancy between the richest and the poorest. For every smoker who dies, another 30 are suffering from serious smoking-related diseases that affect not just the smoker but all those around them. This burden is dis- proportionately concentrated in our poorest communities; the Covid pandemic has really laid this bare for all to see. Consequently, people in these communities would accrue the greatest benefit from policies to deter people from smoking and make it easier to quit. Ending smoking for all would lift 500,000 households out of poverty. That includes 740,000 working-age adults, 180,000 pensioners and 330,000 children concentrated in the north and Midlands.

Ending smoking in these communities would not just benefit the health and well-being of individuals but inject into local economies money previously and literally going up in smoke. This would show just how serious the Government are when they talk about levelling up, but disappointingly they have thus far opted not to support the amendments proposed to the Health and Care Bill to get us on track to meet the smoke-free 2030 ambition. This includes the measure we are discussing today. These amendments form a key part of the comprehensive package of messages and measures needed to drive down overall smoking rates while also tackling the disproportionately high rates of smoking among poorer and more vulnerable groups.

To their credit, Ministers in the other place expressed support for the principle behind the amendments, but said they needed more time to consider the proposals. My point to the Minister today is that it has been more than two years since the Government announced the 2030 ambition. With that in mind, when will action be under way to deliver this important commitment?

Ministers have also stated that the Health and Care Bill is not the right place for measures to tackle smoking, which will instead be announced and introduced in the forthcoming tobacco control plan. However, this plan has already been delayed twice and seems unlikely to be published this year as proposed, meaning that we might not see concrete action to deliver the smoke-free 2030 ambition until 2023. When can we expect to see the plan?

We cannot afford to wait this long. The Government have the opportunity to adopt this Bill or accept the tobacco amendments to the Health and Care Bill. We have an opportunity now to move this agenda forward and start building back the nation’s health as we emerge from the worst of the pandemic. I urge the Government not to waste this chance. The Bill would play a contributory and important role in helping us reach the smoke-free 2030 ambition. I hope the Government feel able to support it.