Alcohol: Children’s Health

Debate between Lord O'Shaughnessy and Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton

Monday 3rd April 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

The noble Baroness will know that on minimum unit pricing a court case is ongoing in Scotland, where the proposed introduction of minimum unit pricing has been challenged by the Scotch Whisky Association. We are awaiting the outcome of that court case before we move ahead.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton (Lab)]

Will the Minister give an undertaking that, in looking at this issue in the broad, the Government will have regard to the number of children who grow up in households where there is a severe alcohol problem among the parents or adults? Will he undertake to monitor carefully how much the public health authorities are providing and enhancing alcohol treatment centres, which appear to be diminishing in some parts of the country? Many children grow up suffering because of this sort of family problem.

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

The noble Baroness highlights a difficult and, indeed, tragic area. The other day, my honourable friend the Public Health Minister met the APPG on Children of Alcoholics. In preparing for a debate last week organised by the noble Lord, Lord Brooke, I discovered that Alcohol Concern estimates that there are 95,000 children under the age of one who live in a family where the parent has an alcohol problem. That is a rather horrifying statistic. One way we are dealing with that is through the family nurse partnerships; indeed, more than 16,000 places are now available and one of the capacities they have is to provide help for families struggling with addiction, whether it is to alcohol, drugs or other things.

Tobacco Control Plan

Debate between Lord O'Shaughnessy and Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton

Thursday 23rd February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

My noble friend is right to raise the issue of e-cigarettes. Something like half the 2.8 million current users of e-cigarettes are no longer smoking tobacco, so it has proved to be an extremely effective way of helping people to stop smoking. The UK has one of the most welcoming approaches to e-cigarettes in the world. We have a proactive approach of encouraging smokers to switch to vaping, and ensuring that that continues will be a part of the plan.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton (Lab)]

My Lords, I declare my interest. Will the Minister have regard to a comment from a grandson? I asked him whether he smoked. He said that most of his friends did, but he did not because he thought it was something old ladies do. He was very polite about it and said he did not want to be rude. Would it not be better to discourage young people by showing pictures of old ladies smoking, because none of the young people concerned want to look like old ladies?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I would not like to comment on the particular instance to which the noble Baroness refers, but she is quite right about role models. Part of the importance of ensuring that there is no longer smoking in public places is that we do not want young people to think that it is normal, as it were, to smoke but something, whether it is for old ladies or not, that should not be done.