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Smoke-free (Penalties and Discounted Amounts) Regulations 2007

Like my noble friend Lord Howe, I congratulate the Government on the age for buying cigarettes being raised to 18. That is brilliant and very well done. I have a problem with the exposure of staff in care homes, hospices and prisons to smoking. Does that conflict with the European Convention on Human Rights where the staff will be exposed if the inmates are allowed to smoke? I am concerned about that because people who have a real problem about smoke probably would not be able to be employed in those areas, which is discriminatory. Is it not? I know that the noble Lord will not be terribly keen on my point about Ireland. The fixed penalty for smoking in a non-smoking premises, to which he objected so strongly, is up to €3,000 in Ireland, which is £2,000. So the penalties we have here are well within the range. Frankly, you need something fairly drastic to stop all this, because otherwise people will try to get around it. I want to ask the noble Baroness about vehicles. Regulation 11(1)(b), under ““Vehicles””, states that, "““in the course of paid or voluntary work by more than one person (even if those persons use the vehicle at different times, or only intermittently)””." Lots of people use their own vehicles to give lifts to the elderly to day care centres or to help with meals on wheels. If they smoke in their private vehicles, and continue to do so, will they be stopped from doing that? There might be a problem there. Obviously, I would not want smoking to go on in vehicles when people are being moved in them, as there will be a residual smell of smoke, which causes problems for people as well. I would like to know what the Government’s view is on that. Are bonfires and the particulates from cars not covered by the Clean Air Act and also by the vehicle regulations which have reduced emissions? I would have thought so. A lot of parish churches and cathedrals are used for musical events, plays and so on. Many so-called secular events take place in cathedrals because their upkeep is so expensive and they are always touting for business. That is another problem. What about posters? We are talking about a very small amount for TV, which would buy you nothing after agent’s commission and so on. What about the manufacture of posters and smoke-free signs? Will the Government give those to people? Will they be free? Or will everyone have to pay for them?