HL Deb 21 July 1965 vol 268 cc719-20

2.50 p.m.

LORD AIREDALE

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will take note that the United States Congress has passed legislation requiring that cigarette packets shall display the warning, "Caution. Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health"; and whether they plan to introduce similar legislation.]

LORD TAYLOR

My Lords, Her Majesty's Government are aware of the action of the United States Congress, but I cannot at present add to the Answer given to the noble Lord on May 4. The health education campaign in this country is continuing, and the Government are pursuing their consideration of further steps that may be needed to strengthen it.

LORD AIREDALE

My Lords, I am much obliged to the Minister for his Answer, but would not this practice, which now has the blessing of Congress, form a useful corollary to the Government's anti-smoking poster campaign, which does not seem to reach everybody who sees cigarette advertising? May I ask the Minister when he last saw a cigarette advertisement, and when he last saw one of the Government's anti-smoking posters?

LORD TAYLOR

My Lords, I am sorry to say that I cannot remember when I last saw either. But, with regard to the first part of the noble Lord's supplementary question, Her Majesty's Government are watching the effect of American experience of this particular experiment. They are also conducting social surveys on the subject of cigarette smoking and the attitude of adults and school children towards it, to find out what are the most effective ways of influencing them.

LORD BLYTON

My Lords, would my noble friend say whether he thinks we should deter people from enjoying life by stopping them from smoking or putting on their pipe, by saying that it is deleterious to health? I have smoked during fifty years, and I feel all right.

LORD TAYLOR

My Lords, there are obvious advantages in smoking a pipe rather than cigarettes.

BARONESS SUMMERSKILL

My Lords, may I ask my noble friend why, if the Government are indeed supporting the anti-smoking campaign, they did not support the Private Member's Bill which was introduced in another place recently, bearing in mind that it was designed to include on cigarette packets precisely the same caution that is now being introduced on cigarette packets in the United States?

LORD TAYLOR

My Lords, I must tell my noble friend that the word "recently", which I used to her and which she has now used to me, in fact relates to January, 1964, when another Government was in power; it was that Government which did not support it.

BARONESS SUMMERSKILL

Then could I, as a supplementary, ask my noble friend whether, if a Private Member in this Parliament introduced a similar Bill, the present Government would support it?

LORD TAYLOR

My Lords, I have said that this matter is under active consideration, together with all other possible methods of diminishing smoking. I do not think I should commit Her Majesty's Government to a Bill before that consideration is complete.