HC Deb 26 April 1994 vol 242 cc91-3
5. Mr. Martyn Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions she has had on banning all tobacco advertising from hoardings within one or three miles of schools.

The Minister for Health (Dr. Brian Mawhinney)

We are currently negotiating with the tobacco industry to strengthen the voluntary agreement on tobacco advertising and promotion. The negotiations are confidential and we shall publish their outcome in due course.

Mr. Jones

Is not there very clear evidence from abroad to suggest that advertising increases smoking in under-age smokers? The Exchequer gets an estimated £96 million-worth of funds from under-age smokers through taxation, yet the Department spends only £5 million on health education. Is not it time to do something for the health of under-age smokers in Britain and ban tobacco advertising?

Dr. Mawhinney

First, though he may not want to do so, I suggest that the hon. Gentleman reads the evidence that I presented to the House in my Second Reading speech on the Tobacco Advertising Bill, which clearly illustrates that no concurrent evidence links cause and effect in the way that he suggests. We agree with the hon. Gentleman that advertising has a part to play and that is why we have had a voluntary agreement for 18 years. It is why we have sought over the years to tighten that agreement when it was appropriate to do so. That is what the current negotiations are about and I look forward to their success.

Dame Jill Knight

Will my right hon. Friend encourage the present trend in tobacco advertising, which seems to produce advertisements so obtuse that they fail entirely to give any message about smoking itself and merely have clearly written on the bottom the warning that smoking can severely damage health?

Dr. Mawhinney

My hon. Friend makes a good point, although I am told that some in the community understand that they are tobacco advertisements. I take her point about the size of the warning, and I will bear that strongly in mind in the coming days.

Mr. McCartney

The Minister must know that in the 18 years since the agreement came in, 1,100,000 citizens have died directly because of the tobacco industry. Will the Minister give a commitment on the 13th of this month to support the all-party initiative in the Tobacco Advertising Bill—or is the simple fact that, because of the £100,000 donation to his party by Rothmans in the month before the general election, he finds it difficult to change Government policy to protect children? If he is serious about children and tobacco, perhaps he will give a commitment to give Rothmans back the £100,000 and do something to stop kids smoking.

Dr. Mawhinney

I am happy to say that there are some cracks from the Opposition Front Bench that are not worthy of a serious response. The hon. Gentleman and I together deplore the number of unnecessary deaths caused in this country by smoking. We deplore together the millions of working days lost as a result of smoking. We recognise together the importance of parental influence, parental behaviour and price—and also, I suspect, that the evidence surrounding those three issues, which is compelling, is far more likely to be effective in reducing the death rate, which he and I deplore, than a ban on tobacco advertising.

Mr. Jessel

Is my right hon. Friend aware that in a typical constituency there are 1,300 15-year-olds, of whom about 24 per cent. smoke, and that, according to the Royal College of Physicians about one third of those—or 100 of the 1,300—will die of smoking if we continue at the present rate? Is not it totally unacceptable to advertise within easy reach of those who are young and gullible, perhaps leading them into a habit that is likely to be lethal for them?

Dr. Mawhinney

My hon. Friend makes an important point. We have already made it clear in the House that there is particular concern about children and their exposure to advertising. My views on that are on the record. They are part of our current negotiations with the industry, the outcome of which we shall report to the House in due course.