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Health Bill

My Lords, I shall make three extremely brief points in favour of this excellent amendment. First, many small clubs, in particular those in rural areas, have no paid employees. Members of the club committee take it in turn to dispense drinks on a voluntary basis. If there are no employees who might be put at some risk, why—with the consent of the membership, of course—should smoking not be allowed? Secondly, in those mainly larger clubs that employ staff—who must by definition be agreeable to working among smokers—those employees will be at no greater risk than prison officers, nurses and other staff in residential care homes, and chambermaids and room service waiters in hotels, all of whom will continue to be exposed to other people’s smoke with the full approval of the Government as the Bill stands. Finally, only just over 56 per cent of honourable Members representing English constituencies voted for the banning of smoking in clubs. The majority was inflated by the votes of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs, none of whose constituents have any direct interest in the matter.