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Lord Warner: My Lords, I pay tribute to the work that my noble friend has carried out in this area. I do not have the figures on the money available, but I shall investigate that and write to her. As I said in the Statement, there will
be a school nurse for each cluster of primary or secondary schools. One of the areas in which they will be involved is the personal, social and health education curriculum which will include sexually transmitted infections and contraception issues.
Lord Addington: My Lords, I congratulate the Minister on presenting a document which draws attention to the link between sporting activity and health. Does he have a firm figure on the extent to which the Government want to increase sporting activity? Does he have any idea yet of the amount of resources required for physical facilities and trained personnel? On 4 November, I asked the noble Lord, Lord McIntosh, a similar question but he declined to give me any form of answer.
Lord Warner: My Lords, the White Paper will lead to the investment of £1 billion for sport in schools. We shall develop more sport specialist academies; we shall invest in successful initiatives to promote physical activity by young people; and we shall help more children to walk or to cycle safely to school.
Lord Chan: My Lords, I welcome the White Paper on behalf of the primary care trust of which I am a non-executive director with particular interest in public health. We have waited a long time to tackle health inequalities but at last it has come about. For that we congratulate the Government and look forward to the extra money that will be given—the £1 billion.
Will the Government give primary care trusts autonomy so that the money can be used to suit local needs and to work across boundaries with other primary care trusts and local authorities? In the north-west, for example, there are several areas of deprivation where people require and are in favour of the complete banning of smoking in public places. We would want to push for that, despite the advice in the White Paper. Can the Minister give his view on that as well as on other issues such as eating, exercise and alcohol consumption?
Lord Warner: My Lords, as the noble Lord knows, we are shifting the balance of power. PCTs, along with the rest of the local health economy and related services, can adapt the resources that they have to their local circumstances and adopt policies that meet the particular needs of their communities. I draw the noble Lord's attention to the fact that I mentioned health trainers in the Statement. They will be drawn from local communities, they will be people with whom the local communities can identify and they will be accredited, but they will be able to give a particular local dimension to the services and advice provided.
Lord Geddes: My Lords, I wonder whether the Minister has read the article in today's Sun which states:
- "smoking in pubs should be a matter of choice—with smoking areas and non-smoking areas provided".
I declare an interest as a proud member of the Lords and Commons Pipe and Cigar Smokers' Club. Why should smoking not be allowed in separate ventilated rooms when hot food is served on premises or at times when hot food is not served?
Lord Warner: My Lords, there is good evidence that ventilation systems do not guarantee that an area stays smoke-free. As I said in response to other noble Lords, once one consults people, one has to listen to them. That is what democracy is all about. There is an overwhelming wish to move away from being exposed to second-hand smoke where people eat.
Lord Faulkner of Worcester: My Lords, I declare an interest as a trustee of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. My noble friend will be aware that Roy Castle died of lung cancer having not smoked a single cigarette in his life. He contracted the disease as a result of working in smoke-polluted clubs for the whole of his career. I recognise that the Statement is a very considerable step forward in terms of public health, but how will it protect those who work in bars and clubs from the effects of second-hand smoke?
Picking up a point made by the noble Lord, Lord Chan, can the Minister give an assurance that Her Majesty's Government will not seek to block, water down or undermine Private Bill legislation sponsored by local authorities, such as Liverpool City Council, to introduce a complete ban on smoking in public places and places of work in their areas? One has to bear in mind that such Bills arise as a result of the wishes of local people and democratic decisions taken by the councils and that they are designed to deal with particular problems of smoking-related diseases in their areas.
Lord Warner: My Lords, on the latter point, when I last looked, Liverpool was part of the country called England. It is on that basis that we legislate across the country. As regards banning smoking in public places, it is for the Government to take the necessary action on legislation at the appropriate time. There is nothing in the White Paper that stops people entering into voluntary arrangements in anticipation of that legislation and withdrawing smoking from particular pubs and clubs or any other public place. People can see which way the policy is going. The policy direction is very clear.
As regards the staff who work in pubs and clubs where smoking is permitted, there will be provision to ensure that smoking does not take place in the bar areas where they serve. There will be many more opportunities in the hospitality and entertainment industry to work in environments where one is not exposed to second-hand smoke.
Baroness O'Cathain: My Lords, I welcome the White Paper and the Statement. I thank the Minister and the usual channels for making the White Paper and Statement available to noble Lords some considerable time before the Statement was delivered
in the House. My first question relates to the fact that the Statement given by the Minister varied from the written Statement by emphasising that it referred to England only. What will happen in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?Secondly, on a point of clarification, the Minister spoke of £1 billion to be spent on PE for schools, but the summary says that there will be an extra £1 billion spent on public health. Is that the same £1 billion? I suspect not. It would be useful to know whether the total is £2 billion.
The Portman Group is to get involved in consultation on alcohol, but it is not exactly disinterested. On passive smoking, 20 per cent of pubs and bars—the Minister has added that, compared with the printed Statement—will not be smoke-free, but that is a big no-no for those of us who are very concerned about passive smoking.
Finally, I should like to know how the Government will organise local groups to become the protagonists of this provision. It is going to be very difficult, I am sure.
Lord Warner: My Lords, the Government are trying to set a clear direction of travel in this area—smoking—and across the patch in terms of public health. We are giving clear signals on the future direction of policy. It is clear from the consultation that there is a good deal of public support for this particular direction of travel. People want more information and support.
We are working with the Portman Group, which has a reasonable track record in corporate social responsibility. We want to take forward those discussions in the context of this White Paper, which makes the Government's position extremely clear.
The £1 billion for sports facilities is over a three-year period and the money for public health is also over a three-year period. So there are two figures.
Lord Williamson of Horton: My Lords, I declare an interest as a non-executive director of Whitbread, which is the biggest hotel company in Britain, one of the largest restaurant companies in Britain and one of the market leaders in health and fitness clubs. Does the Minister agree that the industry is now making an effort on one of the important points which was mentioned in the White Paper? That is the question of fat, salt and sugar in foods. I make the point because this morning I visited a development kitchen, which has considerably reduced those products in foods in a huge number of restaurants across the United Kingdom. The issue is not only for government; unless the industry takes these practical steps we are not going to get any of the improvements we want. But I think we can do it.
Lord Warner: My Lords, I would agree that there has been movement within the industry in this area. We are faced with trying to find a signposting system that is easy for people to understand, so that when they are buying processed food they can understand what they are getting and what the health risks are. Clearly,
we need to work with the industry and the Food Standards Agency to get a practical labelling system in operation as quickly as possible.
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