Baroness Northover (LD)

My Lords, most of the amendments here may seem limited in scope but, as we have heard, they have in fact been set down to seek both to delay and to water down this Bill. This weekend, my daughter and I visited my 24 year-old nephew where he is currently studying. As we walked along, he rolled cigarettes. I mentioned to him that I would be involved in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill today and that the aim was to create a smoke-free generation. He stopped in his tracks, turned to me and said, “Just get this passed now”. He then said, “I never want my son, if I ever have one, ever to take up smoking”. He told me that, several weeks earlier, he had given up vaping. He told me how difficult he found it. He hopes he can keep to it, despite repeatedly seeking to give up both vaping and smoking. He started among his peers in his teens, at the age of 14. He has not managed to kick the habit thus far. No one else in his family smokes. He fully knows the risks. No amount of warning on packets can deter the urge that he has. Try as he might, he just cannot kick the habit. We know how addictive this is, which is why it is vital to stop the habit starting among the young. My nephew’s desire in his teens to do what all his friends were doing led him to smoking via highly attractive vapes, which is precisely what the industry knows. It is also precisely why this legislation, brought forward after the Khan review and then by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is so visionary. We must deliver this, yet many of these amendments seek to undermine it. The industry is very adept at working on opposition, as has been the case over so many years.