Member

If handmade cigars, pipe tobacco and snuff remain in scope when the Bill becomes an Act, our Amendments 104 and 105 and the two consequential Amendments 102 and 201 would provide the evidence and analysis that are missing. They should therefore, I hope, be welcome and uncontroversial. They would simply require the Secretary of State to complete and publish an impact assessment on the economic and public health effects of either applying the measures set out in the Bill or exercising the delegated powers set out in Clause 45(1) in respect of these three products. This would ensure that any extension of the Bill’s measures or powers to handmade cigars, pipe tobacco and snuff would be informed by proper evidence prior to their implementation. I also therefore strongly support Amendments 140A and 140B in the name of my noble friend Lord Johnson of Lainston, which would require an independent report into the impact on hand-rolled cigars before they could be subject to the provisions set out in Part 5 of the Bill.