Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Monday 16th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Walton of Detchant (CB)]

As a small boy in a mining village in County Durham, where my father was a schoolteacher, I was introduced to Woodbines at the age of 11 and started to smoke intermittently but frequently. When I went to medical school, I am horrified to tell your Lordships that we were advised by our teachers to smoke in the dissecting room to remove the smell of the carcasses which we were dissecting. The professor of physiology said that he could not live without smoking and that we were therefore fully entitled to smoke all the way through his lectures. Practically every medical student in those days did.

After graduation, when I eventually became second in command of a hospital ship sailing through the Mediterranean to Palestine and various other places, I could buy a 50-can of Senior Service cigarettes for one shilling and eight pence and that can would last me two days—25 a day I was smoking. None of us at that time knew the dangers of smoking. When I came back out of the Army and started to work in a hospital in Newcastle and then in the National Health Service, slowly but surely the work of Richard Doll and his colleagues on the desperate effects of smoking began to emerge. Eventually, thank goodness, I had the strength to give up smoking—with difficulty—in my late 30s. It was a struggle but I made that sensible decision and thank goodness I did; otherwise, I probably would not be here now.

Smoking tobacco is one of the most appalling health hazards of the age—there is no question at all about that. Not only does it cause cancer of the lung and of other organs such as the bowel and bladder, it has a very powerful effect on the cardiovascular system in causing coronary artery disease and stroke; it also has a desperate effect on the respiratory system in causing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It has a devastating effect on all kinds of illness. For that reason, I have been delighted to participate in debates in your Lordships’ House over the years leading to bans on advertising and on smoking in public places— bans that have all been introduced by Parliament in good sense. Any effort of any kind that can prevent young people taking up this appalling habit is well worth while.

I say to the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, that my friend Sir Cyril Chantler is not a master of the kind of market research that he talked about but he is an expert in epidemiology and in statistics, and his research clearly demonstrated that standardised packaging is,

“likely to lead to a modest but important reduction over time on the uptake and prevalence of smoking”.

Any measure that has that effect and prevents young people taking up smoking is well worth while, and for that reason I regard standardised packaging as another essential regulatory measure in addition to the ones that have been passed by your Lordships’ House and by Parliament in general in having the effect of preventing youngsters from taking up this appalling habit.

I therefore strongly support the regulations, I strongly support the excellent introduction by the noble Earl, and I am afraid that I regard this Amendment as having another devastating effect, which is without question not necessarily sponsored but supported by the tobacco industry, which has done so much to delay the development of these important public health measures, which have made such a great contribution to public health.

[Lord Geddes (Con)]

My Lords, like my noble friend Lord Blencathra, I declare an interest as a member of the Lords and Commons Cigar and Pipe Smokers’ Club—and proud of it. Also like my noble friend Lord Blencathra, I commend and congratulate my noble friend the Minister, who could not be a nicer man, on leading the debates on this subject and indeed on tobacco-related products in general so courteously over many years.

However, I am glad to support my noble friend Lord Naseby. I may be the only Member of your Lordships’ House who has experience of plain packaging in this country; I am trying to see whether anybody is going to disagree with me. That was when I first joined the Navy as a national serviceman aged just 18, when I was offered what were called “Blue Liners”. They came in totally plain packets and all there was on the cigarette was a minute blue line running along it—no name of the manufacturer, nothing of the sort. It certainly did not deter me from taking up smoking, nor did it deter any of my colleagues. I just do not believe that plain packaging will deter the young—who ought to be deterred; I could not agree more—from taking up smoking.

Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Tuesday 24th February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Patel (CB)]

My Lords—

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord Geddes)]

I assume the noble Lord would like to move his amendment.

[Lord Deben]

I beg to move.

Care and Support (Business Failure) Regulations 2014

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd February 2015 Grand Committee

[Earl Howe]

I will be very happy to do so.

The noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler, referred to the closure of the Independent Living Fund, and asked for the Government to provide guidance in the light of that. In response to the views of stakeholders during the consultation, we have provided guidance on how local authorities should manage the transition to social care for people previously receiving ILF funding. The guidance is included in the Care Act guidance that has now been published.

Both the noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler, and the noble Lord, Lord Lipsey, questioned the words “significant impact on well-being”. In particular, they expressed concern that there might be a variation of interpretation of that phrase. One of the core principles of the Care Act is that the person is central to the new care and support system, and that support is built around their needs and the outcomes they want to achieve. Considering the impact on the person’s well-being in deciding on their eligibility will make the determination personal to them. This recognises that people with similar needs and inabilities to achieve certain outcomes may have different eligibility determinations because the impact on their well-being is different.

It is important that there is consistency in approach in how the eligibility criteria are used. We have commissioned Skills for Care to develop training material and the Social Care Institute for Excellence to develop practice materials to support implementation of the eligibility criteria across authorities. Professional judgment will remain key to decision-making—this should not become a tick-box approach which does not focus on the person. We have never claimed that this will remove disparity. The system is person-focused, so it is inevitable and right that individual decisions will be made.

As regards the concern of the noble Baroness about requiring people to be unable to carry out two or more outcomes, and whether that would restrict access to care, this was an issue that was raised with the consultation version of the regulations, where there was concern that it would be impossible for people with mental health problems to become eligible due to how we described the outcomes that had to be considered. We addressed this in the regulations we are discussing today by converting the two lists of outcomes which were described in the consultation version of the regulations into one list which would capture all groups. We checked this approach with our stakeholder working group, which included members from the Care and Support Alliance and ADASS. The group concluded that it could not identify any groups that would be unintentionally excluded from eligibility due to this approach.

I turn next to the issue of informing the public, so that they have a clear understanding of their rights and the system overall. The noble Baroness will remember that we discussed this extensively during the passage of what is now the Care Act. We are putting in place a full communications campaign to ensure that people receiving services, their carers and families—and the broader population—understand the impact of the Care Act and what it means for them. The campaign will feature a partnership between the local and the national, building on the successful approaches pioneered by previous campaigns such as Change4Life. Local authorities, working with other local partners including the NHS and the voluntary sector, will get messages out directly to their own populations. We have developed a range of campaign materials and guidance to help councils communicate the changes in their local area. That will be supported by wider-reaching national activity—

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees]

With great respect to the noble Earl, I am afraid that a Division has been called in the Chamber. The Grand Committee stands adjourned until 4.35 pm.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees]

My Lords, it is 4.35 pm. I happen to know that the Minister is on his way because I was with him in the corridor. If we could perhaps crave indulgence for just one more minute, I am sure he will appear.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees]

The Minister has now rejoined us. I cut him off in mid-flow, so perhaps he would like to continue.

NHS: Bed Capacity

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Thursday 20th March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

I agree with the principle that the noble Lord has articulated. Certainly, commissioners and providers of care should reduce beds only where it is clinically safe and appropriate to do so. The NHS is very experienced at flexing the number of beds it has available; it does this every year and every winter. As a principle, I would agree with the noble Lord but I come back to the point that bed occupancy rates have, in fact, remained stable over the past 10 years, fluctuating between 84% and 88% on average, and increasing slightly over the winter period.

[Lord Geddes (Con)]

My Lords, further to the question from my noble friend Lady Barker, is it mandatory for the NHS to advise next of kin before discharging frail patients?

Health: Pancreatic Cancer

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Monday 23rd April 2012 Grand Committee

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I will be happy to clarify that point in a letter.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Geddes)]

The Grand Committee stands adjourned until 4.30 pm, or indeed there may be a Division during that time, in which case it will be 10 minutes from the time when the Division is called.