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Health Bill

My two least favourite words in the political lexicon are ““modernisation”” and ““prohibition””. When I looked through the Bill, I found that although the first of those is, happily, not present, the second one, sadly, is—right up front. I also found that ““regulations”” occurs 18 times, ““offence”” occurs 20 times, and ““enforcement”” occurs 10 times. In schedule 1, ““penalty”” occurs 19 times, ““offence”” six times and ““enforcement”” three times. What have we come to, that we are being asked to take this approach in order to do what many people see as the right way forward? I very much agree with the approach taken by my right hon. Friend the Member for Charnwood (Mr. Dorrell), who succinctly set out the case that is in danger of going by default in this debate: that in a mature, informed society, we should surely leave individuals as much opportunity as possible to exercise their choice and discretion. That should be informed, of course. There is a duty on the Government of the day, and on us, to do what we can to inform people about the risks that they may be taking in terms of their health and safety.