Tobacco and Vapes Bill

Lord Udny-Lister Excerpts

2nd reading
Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Udny-Lister (Con)]

My Lords, nobody in this House would ever dispute the virtues of creating a smoke-free generation and protecting public health, but the reality is that legislation, if we want it to be effective, has to be both practical and enforceable, and it is there that I have real difficulties with this Bill. In the short time I have, I will touch on just one area: the undue burden that is now going to be placed on local councils. We are going to create laws that are ultimately unenforceable and will inadvertently encourage illicit trading and limit our personal freedoms.

On enforcement, we know that trading standards, the police and licensing teams right across the UK are already under-resourced and overstretched. The notion that we can somehow police every corner shop in Britain—all 50,000 of them—and regulate every e-commerce website and cross-border shipment is farcical. Even if we accept the premise of this Bill, which I do not, the Government have yet to properly explain how they plan to adequately enforce it. I might add that the previous Bill, put forward by the Conservative Party, was little better on that point.

We know that when Governments seek to overregulate or ban products outright, if people want those products and are used to getting them, the demand is not eliminated simply by passing an Act. Instead, over- regulation pushes the trade underground, resulting in illicit trades and dangerous counterfeit products entering the market that pose even greater risks to public health than the blueberry vape that somebody wants to buy over the counter at their local convenience store. Who is going to fund the additional staff and resourcing that trading standards teams will require to enforce the clauses of this proposed legislation?

The pressure this Bill will place on local authorities concerns me, because the Government have failed to understand that our councils are already overstretched, thin on the ground and struggling with limited resources. The Bill requires councils to become the front line—the very coalface enforcers of a sprawling new licensing regime for tobacco and vaping products. Anybody with any experience of local authority licensing will tell you that councils are already struggling to cope with existing alcohol licensing. Due to funding and recruitment issues, not to mention severe backlogs in our magistrates’ courts, they are already unable to achieve this.

Do the Government realise that this legislation will require councils to monitor shops, issue licences, carry out inspections, support businesses with training, resolve disputes and take legal action against offenders? If the answer to that is yes, will the Minister explain to the House where this army of enforcement and licensing officers is going to come from and where the funding is? For years, as we have already heard from a previous speaker, the trading standards sector has been making the case that more needs to be done to encourage recruitment and training of new officers. After all, trading standards are currently responsible for enforcing over 300 laws. Given the new burdens placed on trading standards by this Bill, I would like to see the Government commit to investing in the training of qualified trading standards officers through a new and dedicated apprenticeship fund. We must not set up our councils to fail, as we are doing. In the interests of protecting local authorities and strengthening our trading standards teams, I will be seeking to amend the Bill as it progresses through your Lordships’ House.

I further fear that the Bill is a grave attack on personal freedom and liberty. Sadly, it represents another step in the creep of the nanny state. As it stands, the Bill erodes personal freedoms, makes life harder for small business owners and places undue burdens on local councils, all without addressing the root cause of vaping and tobacco use. If the Government are serious about creating a smoke-free generation, they should note that education and support work carried out by public health is the way forward, not prohibition.

Finally, is it really the Government’s intention to ignore the ancient principle of equality under the law? For if left unamended, the Bill will result in individuals born just a day apart having permanently different rights. I believe that the duty of Parliament, and indeed of this House, is to preserve equality under the law, and therefore I cannot support this.

Covid-19: Vaccinations for School Pupils

Lord Udny-Lister Excerpts

Monday 17th January 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Udny-Lister (Con)]

My Lords, can my noble friend the Minister update the House on what actions the Government have taken to protect school pupils and teaching staff from the reckless behaviour and damaging misinformation being propagated by anti-vax protesters?

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My noble friend raises a very important point, which I know a number of other noble Lords have also raised. In a free society, we have to get the balance right between freedom of speech and ensuring that people have a right to say even those things with which we may disagree fundamentally, while ensuring that misinformation is not spread. The department has now provided information and guidance to schools on how to handle any misinformation, and who to contact if there are protests which step beyond the line of acceptability and contravene the law. The police now have comprehensive power to deal with the activities, especially those which spread hate or deliberately raise tensions through violence or public disorder. I am sure many people will be aware of the attacks on vaccination centres in Truro in October and in north Wales and at the Bromley Civic Centre earlier this month. That was going way too far on freedom of speech, and we want to make sure that we deal with the people who take part in these acts.

Covid-19 Update

Lord Udny-Lister Excerpts

Tuesday 6th July 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Udny-Lister (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate the Minister and the Government on taking this decisive decision to start getting the country back to normal, and in particular, to start getting the economy back to normal. Of course, this could not have been done without the success of the vaccine rollout. All that goes back to last March and April, when some very decisive decisions were made. The Prime Minister made it clear on a number of occasions that the way out would be vaccination.

I urge the Minister to go a little further and start getting the Government back into their offices in Whitehall and elsewhere and start helping those businesses which are so dependent upon our town centres—and, indeed, even this Whitehall area—to get them back together. I also urge him to start looking at the traffic light system, especially as Germany has now opened its borders to India. Now is the time to start trusting the vaccines.

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, I completely concur with my noble friend’s analysis. This is an opportunity for the economy to bounce back, and I am really encouraged by everything I hear from the private sector in terms of the energy, enthusiasm and resilience of the UK economy. The large number of people who will be holidaying at home this summer provides one shot in the arm for the hospitality industry, which I know it is taking advantage of.

When it comes to borders, we have to be careful. One does not like to think about it, but the existence of millions and millions of people with the disease today means that the possibility of further variants has to be on the agenda. That is why we take it one step at a time, and I pay tribute to those in Border Force and the managed quarantine scheme for the work they have done. It is ironic that the variant delta, which started in India, is now so prevalent in the UK that it is possible to think about India coming off the red list. But there are variants elsewhere that we have to be wary of.

Hospital Waiting Lists

Lord Udny-Lister Excerpts

Tuesday 29th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

The noble Baroness points very well to exactly the kind of challenge that we face at the moment. She is entirely right that conditions such as arthritis and rheumatology require complex combinations and collaboration between many different staff, as well as the application of new and effective treatments and therapies. That is exactly where we are working hard to catch up. I will go back to the apartment, dig out any statistics I can and write to her accordingly.

[Lord Udny-Lister (Con)]

My Lords, waiting lists were too long pre the pandemic and there are now some 6 million people awaiting treatment of one kind or another, many of them in a lot of pain and discomfort. The National Health Service has learned a lot during the pandemic. Will the Minister publish how he intends to speed up the treatment that these people need? Can he also advise whether he routinely uses his private email with his contacts?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, the publication of NHS plans around the catch-up is happening on a regular basis, and there will indeed be further communication from the NHS on this. On the use of private email, I reassure noble Lords that I have read and signed the ministerial code and I seek to uphold it in everything I do.