Tobacco and Vapes Bill

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth Excerpts

2nd reading
Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Con)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Llanfaes. I totally agree with the point she made about vaping and the need for research into the long-term effects of vaping—that is absolutely right.

This part of the speakers’ list looks like a Welsh odyssey, with speakers from Llanfaes in north Wales, Aberystwyth in mid Wales and, following me, my good friend, the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, in south Wales. A tiny corner of the House of Lords Chamber is for ever Wales on St George’s Day.

I thank the Minister very much indeed for setting out the rationale of this legislation, which she did very effectively—it seems a long while ago now. I declare my interests as set out in the register.

This is the most significant piece of public health legislation for a generation and I think there is a danger that some of my colleagues may be losing sight of that. The mainspring of this legislation is to protect the health of generations to come and talk of an age limit of 21 does not achieve that. This legislation is remarkably like legislation introduced by the last Government under Rishi Sunak. I was very proud of that legislation and the current Government deserve some credit for bringing forward similar legislation, rather than to be attacked for bringing forward Tory legislation, as one noble Baroness put it. I am very pleased that this legislation is remarkably similar to the legislation we saw then.

It is fairly clear that this legislation is not perfect. This is Second Reading. There will be amendments and there will be discussions on funding for trading standards and how we combat illicit tobacco sales. It would be good to have some reliable figures on that. We have heard people bandying figures about. I do not think anybody really knows. Age verification is something we need to look at as well, but people talked about that as though it was difficult. I looked at my wallet because I was pretty confident that this was the case: your driving licence has your date of birth. You just have to show that—it is straightforward. I am not suggesting there are not issues with this legislation but that is not an insuperable one.

Against all this, we should not lose sight of the fact that smoking is the largest cause of death in the United Kingdom, causing some 74,000 deaths in 2019. Since the last election, over 100,000 young people will have taken up smoking. That is not something we should glory in by pretending this is some libertarian nirvana and they are all rushing to say, “Let’s exercise our freedom to smoke”. I do not believe for a minute that that is what is happening. Smoking, as we know, substantially increases the risk of major health conditions—heart disease, dementia, asthma, diabetes, and the list could go on.

The cost to the NHS is £3 billion a year and social care costs must be added to that. The time lost from smoking-induced illness costs £18 billion a year. The cost easily outweighs the revenue loss of £10 billion, so let us just nail that one.

It is a depressing national picture that is made up of many millions of individual heart-rending stories of loss of loved ones. We have heard today that everybody here will have been touched by somebody in their family, somebody they know, perhaps many people they know, who have lost years of their life or had bad health at the end of their life brought about by smoking. Ranged against that we have some people arguing for, as I say, a libertarian nirvana of allowing teenagers to smoke to exercise their fundamental freedom. I look forward to seeing a petition from those suffering from smoking-induced illnesses, or from their families or friends, to halt this legislation. I do not suppose we will be seeing that, to add to the objections of the tobacco industry.

I will say a quick word about vaping. Like many others, I agree that vaping appears to be less deleterious than smoking. It would be good to have further information and evidence on that. Seen correctly as an aid to quit smoking it could be encouraged, within that narrow band, but there is nothing desirable about vaping. It is not great—it is just better than smoking. I support age-gating technology to ensure that those using vapes are those who could legitimately smoke. To that extent, it is to be welcomed.

This is powerful, desirable legislation. I hope we will support it as it goes forward on the basis that it is good legislation which can be improved.