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Health Bill

My Lords, I have listened to the Minister and the noble Earl, Lord Howe, and, as the Government and the Opposition agree about the amendment, I am not going to oppose it. If the noble Earl, Lord Howe, can get an assurance from the Minister that implementation will not take place until July 2007, then, although I should prefer it to be July 2008—the preferred date of the right honourable Mr Reid when he was the health Minister—I would be altogether satisfied with that. I want to raise one point. I am not entirely clear about what will happen in this respect. Landlords of pubs, restaurateurs and so on are entitled to know in advance exactly what they are required to do. That is fair enough, but Clause 4 continues to worry me, as it worried Members of the Grand Committee. It appears that the Minister has now announced that Clause 4 could be used for banning smoking in the entrances to offices, in bus queues and in bus shelters. That takes us further than we thought the Minister was going in Grand Committee. I wonder whether there will be consultation with those who might queue for a bus, those who operate bus shelters and those who have office doors. I do not know what will happen if smokers are banned from smoking outside office doors. It seems to me that that is carrying smoke-free places to a ridiculous degree. Perhaps the Minister will comment on that aspect. I am sure he does not want to appear to be introducing ridiculous legislation, but I can assure noble Lords that most people to whom I have spoken think that that is taking things a little too far.