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Public Health (England)

In answer to the hon. Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison), I hope that his Front-Bench colleagues will be a bit more responsible in their comments about Anita Roddick’s celebrity launch earlier this week for hepatitis C than they were about Jamie Oliver’s celebrity launch in relation to healthier eating choices in schools. At a school quite close to my constituency, a group of parents tried to defeat the introduction of healthier meals, but the hon. Member for Henley (Mr. Johnson) said that there was nothing wrong with them pushing pies through school railings—probably a habit that he picked up in the Bullingdon club when he was up at Oxford. With regard to public health, the issue of smoking has been mentioned, and the hon. Member for Westbury referred to some European countries. I do not know whether other Members saw in The Sunday Times this week the extraordinary article, which I assume was accurate—perhaps I am naïve—under the headline ““MEPs’ cigarette ban goes up in smoke””. By all accounts, it appears that the European Parliament had decided to introduce a smoking ban within its confines on 1 January this year, but withdrew it after a few days. The article went on to say:"““A 12-member committee of MEPs, which included some smokers, decided that the ban, which had been in place in the parliament’s premises in Brussels and Strasbourg since the start of last month, was ‘unenforceable’””" and had been withdrawn. According to the article, a UK Independence party member, Nigel Farage, said:"““‘I have been ignoring it since January 1…and I have smoked in more places than before.’””" [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mike Penning) says that it is no business of the EU where people smoke. I hope that we get a more responsible approach from 1 July when it comes to smoking in public places.