HL Deb 27 February 1986 vol 471 cc1163-4

3.20 p.m.

Lord Airedale

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

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they propose to take in view of the report in November 1985 of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, that the 41 per cent. of secondary school children in Britain who smoke is a higher percentage than that of men or women.

Baroness Hooper

My Lords, the Government are deeply concerned about the level of smoking among young people and are taking a number of different actions to counteract it.

The figure of 41 per cent. to which the noble Lord refers in his Question, relates to fifth-year pupils; of these 30 per cent. are termed "regular smokers", smoking an average of 50 cigarettes a week, and the remaining 11 per cent. are "occasional smokers". Smoking was found to be much less common among younger children covered by the survey.

Lord Airedale

My Lords, I am grateful for that Answer, but does the noble Baroness not agree that, however you look at them, these figures demonstrate the need to extend the television advertising ban so as to prohibit cigarette brand advertisements at televised sporting events which draw enormous audiences of young people?

Baroness Hooper

My Lords, both advertising and sports sponsorship are already controlled by means of voluntary agreements with the tobacco industry; both of them are currently under review, and in essence these seek to ensure that children are not encouraged to smoke as a result of advertising.

Lord Ennals

My Lords, will the noble Baroness accept that I visited a school last week to talk on this very subject? A young 14-year-old admitted he was a smoker and I asked him why he did not take note of the health warnings and the education that was carried out in school. He said, and I took his words: If it was as dangerous as you say, they would not be permitted to advertise or sponsor sports events". Does the noble Baroness not accept that that is a very powerful argument?

Baroness Hooper

My Lords, indeed I do. I can only comment that in certain countries where there is a total ban on advertising, the decline in smoking habits is not proved to be greater than the decline that is taking place in this country in general. But in order to counteract the peer pressure—"peer" with a small "p"—which I understand to be the problem with young people, among the current health education initiatives being pressed are the "My Body" project, which is intended to improve knowledge of the effect of smoking on health and the "Pacesetters Don't Smoke" campaign involving sporting and other personalities likely to appeal to youth. These personalities include Daley Thompson, Lenny Henry, Tony Knowles and many others, and recently the England soccer team joined the campaign.

Lord Rea

My Lords, is the noble Baroness aware that in Norway, which is one of the countries where cigarette advertising has been banned, the cigarette smoking habits of teenagers have declined, which is the reverse of what is happening in this country? Will she not take the opportunity of the renewal with the tobacco companies of the agreement on sponsorship to rectify this situation of illegal television advertising that is going on at the moment?

Baroness Hooper

My Lords, the Government are taking into account all such factors in relation to the renegotiation of the voluntary agreements. My understanding on the Norwegian experience was that the decline was no better than the decline in smoking habits in this country.

Lord Rea

My Lords, will the noble Baroness please look at the figures which are available in that case?

Baroness Hooper

Certainly, my Lords.

Lady Saltoun of Abernethy

My Lords, is the noble Baroness aware that all my life—ever since my childhood—cigarettes have been advertised all over the place, but that when we were young we were forbidden to smoke in school on pain of possible expulsion? Does she not agree that that could make a very great difference?

Baroness Hooper

Yes, my Lords. Indeed there was a serious programme on television last night on the subject of smoking, particularly among young people. It was shown clearly that before the war young people smoked as an act of rebellion and young women especially were counselled very strongly to knock the habit. It may well be that now too strong an antismoking campaign could be counter-productive.