§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the policy of Her Majesty's Government on the consumption of alcohol and the smoking of cigarettes, respectively.
§ Sir George YoungThe great majority drink alcohol without harm. The Government must be concerned with the harm caused to, and done by, the minority who misuse alcohol and are considering the recommendations in a number of recent reports for preventing excessive and inappropriate drinking.
The object underlying the Government's policy on the smoking of cigarettes is to create a climate of public opinion in which cigarette smoking in increasingly regarded as socially unacceptable, and thus to reduce the preventable disease and early deaths associated with it.