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Health Bill

My Lords, I tried to set out the Government’s intentions regarding smoke-free vehicles in great detail during Grand Committee, but it is clear that I did not satisfy a number of noble Lords. Nevertheless, in addressing these amendments, I begin by making it absolutely clear that the Government have no intention to include private vehicles, including rental vehicles for private use, under smoke-free legislation. The Government listened to the recommendation of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee and in Grand Committee put forward an amendment under which regulations on smoke-free vehicles would be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. That is where we are now. The Government will propose in regulations that the only vehicles to be required to be smoke-free will be those that are used for the transportation of members of the public or those used for work purposes by more than one person. Within regulations, the Government intend that only vehicles or parts of vehicles that are wholly or partly covered by a roof will be required to be smoke-free. This means that vehicles used for work purposes by more than one person, regardless of whether they are in the vehicle at the same time, will be required to be smoke-free at all times. This would be applicable to any vehicle used for work, regardless of whether it is a heavy goods vehicle, a delivery van or a farming vehicle, on the basis that the vehicle was enclosed. This provides the same level of protection for workers’ vehicles as that provided for workers in non-mobile workplaces in Clause 2. This is not an incoherent provision; it is an absolutely consistent provision with the rest of the Bill in terms of enclosed workplaces. I note that in response to the consultation for this Bill conducted last summer, the Road Haulage Association advised, and it is worth saying yet again, that,"““most of our members do have smoking policies that prohibit smoking in shared vehicles””." It does not say that all their members have such a policy, and not everybody is a member of the association. However, the association said that it had no objections to the policy intention to ensure that virtually all enclosed workplaces are smoke-free. We need to listen to what the employers’ interests are saying; they wish to protect their members and employees in these circumstances, and they are arguing for consistency between mobile workplaces and non-mobile workplaces. That seems an incredibly coherent point of view.