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Health Bill

All the amendments were passed in the other place yesterday. They are consequential to the amendment tabled by my right hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield (Mr. McCartney), which the House accepted on Report on 12 October. My right hon. Friend and the hon. Member for Colchester (Bob Russell) tabled a series of amendments on vending machines on Report. Of these, only the substantive amendment was considered and accepted by the House. Amendments 11A to 11G make the necessary consequential changes. As my right hon. Friend clearly explained to the House, the aim of the amendments was to remove the power to restrict sales of tobacco from vending machines. That meant that the national authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland would be able to make regulations only to ban tobacco sales from vending machines completely. As I have previously explained, vending machines are the usual source of cigarettes for 10 per cent. of 11 to 15-year-olds who say that they smoke—some 200,000 young people in 2007. These are the new recruits that the tobacco industry needs, to replace those who die. Throughout the passage of the Bill, we have heard many powerful arguments on the need to act, given that some two thirds of current and past smokers say that they started smoking regularly before the age of 18, and that smoking kills more than 80,000 people every year. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health made clear in his speech on Third Reading that the will of the House would be respected and that the Government would not seek to overturn the amendment in the other place. The amendment tabled by my right hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield and amendments 11A to 11G were considered in the other place and were accepted. The consequential amendments replicate the amendments tabled by my right hon. Friend on Report, but which were not reached. They ensure that the vending machine provisions are workable and achieve the full effect intended by the House. They also ensure that the provisions in clause 23 for Northern Ireland align with those in clause 22 for England and Wales. I can confirm that Ministers in both Wales and Northern Ireland are also committed to prohibiting the sale of tobacco from vending machines in accordance with the amendments.