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Health Bill

I am talking about Clause 4, but, as we see, it refers to Clause 2 and gives Ministers power to expand the scope of the Bill in that sense. Taken literally, Ministers and the Assembly can simply go ahead and we in this House, by convention, would be unable to stand in their way. The Explanatory Notes give us a clue about the kinds of places which Ministers might consider designating, using their Clause 4 powers. The noble Lord, Lord Warner, may say that as yet the Government have no firm intentions to proceed on that basis, but it seems to me that the only locations we could be talking about—short of people’s private homes, which the Minister has ruled out—are public premises in the open air or almost so, such as bus stops, railway platforms or football stadiums. If such places become smoke-free, there must be one prerequisite: that is, scientific evidence of potential harm from environmental tobacco smoke in the quantities likely to be prevalent in the location concerned. Therefore, if we get nothing else from the Minister today, I hope that he will be able to tell us that any policy announced in future under the terms of this clause will be rigorously evidence-based.