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Health Bill

Before the Minister replies, there is something I omitted to say. I think that I ought to draw it to the attention of the Committee, especially bearing in mind what was said by the noble Lord, Lord Walton, about statistics from the United States. In relation to a criticism I made of the British Heart Foundation at col. GC 12 on 24 April, I have received a letter from that body. Although I will not read it in full, I will read the relevant paragraph, which the Committee ought to know about. It states:"““Due to an internal processing error, the wrong version of the statement was issued and by the time it was discovered it was unfortunately too late to retrieve. The reference to exposure to secondhand smoke increasing the chances of developing heart disease by around 25% was correct and was taken from the ‘BHF Coronary Heart Disease Statistics 2005’. However, the following sentence about non-smokers who work in a smoky environment was inaccurate, and as a result, misleading. A correction was immediately issued on our website bhf.org.uk””." I am grateful to the British Heart Foundation for sending that letter and for confirming that we must be careful about taking everything that various bodies say without full discussion and rigorous examination. On this occasion, the British Heart Foundation has been good and courageous enough to correct a mis-statement, but I wonder how many others have been made that have not been corrected.