Speeches by Johnson.

“I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I have not seen a clause in the Bill that prevents tobacco from being imported. The Minister will no doubt correct me if I am wrong about that; however, it does not look as if he is going to. If the leader of another G7 nation is coming to a conference in the UK, he will be …”

“I thank my hon. Friend for that very helpful intervention. I, too, am not entirely clear what the Bill means by reasonable steps. We seem to have established what some reasonable steps might not be, but I am still not clear what they might be. It would be helpful if the Government elucidated that point further.”

“The Minister is shaking his head. So what is a reasonable step? Unless one is to ask everyone for ID, the first step will be to decide whether to ask the customer in front of them for ID. That step will be, in essence, that shopkeeper or shop worker assess the person’s age. Research shows that people are usually off by…”

“Q You have explained that they are very different roles: in one, there is a level of safety that is checked; in the other, the manufacturers just notify that they are following the basic level of rules. When a customer buys a product, do you think that the suggestion that it is MHRA-approved leads the customer to belie…”

“Q Will this Bill help with that? Matthew Shanks: Yes—very much so.”

“Q I have one final quick question on detectors. Some schools have tried detector devices to pick up vape vapour that is not picked up by smoke detectors. What are your thoughts on those? Are they effective and have they been useful to schools? Matthew Shanks: Children are very clever, and they will find a way round. On…”

“Q I agree with you on that. To what extent will the Bill help to resolve, or at least alleviate, the problem of children vaping? Matthew Shanks: At the moment, there is a vacuum around an understanding of what vaping is and what it can and cannot do. I cannot talk to the health aspects, because I am not a health expert…”

“Q Thank you—that is very helpful. We have heard another thing in the past—in fact, a teacher at one of my children’s schools, produced what looked like a small, pink highlighter pen. To all intents and purposes, it was a pink highlighter pen, but it was actually a vape. It is not clear to me why that would be marketed …”

“Q Is there an effect on their concentration or behaviour in class, for example? It is difficult to prove what is in vapes. Again, there are instances of vapes containing illegal substances, but that is difficult to prove, because of their small size and where they can be secreted or hidden. There is evidence out there …”

“Q Good afternoon and welcome. We have heard in the past from headteachers and others about the challenges they have faced in schools with vaping in particular. Can you give us an update on the effects of vaping on children, in terms of school behaviour management, and on their education? Matthew Shanks: That is quite a…”

“Q One of my concerns is that it is quite difficult to identify how old somebody is. People can get themselves into trouble with the law by not being very good at identifying someone’s age, and it is going to get more difficult as this goes forward. Moving away from the age of sale, how will the licensing scheme affect …”

“Yes; what are the challenges in implementing the new regulations? Inga Becker-Hansen: One of the key challenges of age verification is this idea of the rolling age for the smoke-free generation. At this point it is quite identifiable, with those under the regulation being 15, but in 30 years’ time if you have someone w…”

“Q Thank you for coming this afternoon. What do you think will be the challenges facing business in implementing the new age of sale regulations? Inga Becker-Hansen: Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to speak. The question was about age verification, I think—sorry, it is a bit quiet for me here.”

“Q But if you are asking people to ask someone under 30 for their ID, for example, is there any training available to enable young—or old—shopkeepers to identify which people are likely to be under 30? Evidence suggests that people are quite bad at doing that. Wendy Martin: No training exists at the moment, because the …”

“Q Can I ask you about the training available to staff and shops who are being asked to comply with this? We have heard of Challenge 25, where people are told, “If you think someone’s under 25, challenge them just to be on the safe side, because they might be under 18.”, and I have been challenged myself right to the ag…”

“Q I do not think the microphones are working terribly well today. Wendy, do you have any thoughts on the size of the fines? Wendy Martin: Lord Bichard has spoken about the rather varying levels of fines that do exist. The other point worth making is that the issuing of a fixed penalty notice is not automatic anyway. A …”

“Q Thank you for giving evidence this afternoon. Do you think that the penalties proposed by the legislation are too high or too low, or are they sufficient to act as a deterrent? What are your thoughts on that? Lord Michael Bichard: Good afternoon. We will try to be provocative, so we can keep this going until half-pas…”

“Q The last time I was asked for ID —when I was trying to buy a bottle of champagne, an orchid and a punnet of strawberries in a major supermarket—I was 38, so it would seem we are not very good at working out how old people are, or some people are not. We are going to ask people to decide not just if someone is younger…”

“Q My final question is about the verification measures and Challenge 25, which we have heard has been successful in ensuring that children under the age of 18 are not sold such products. I had a look at the evidence for how good people are at establishing how old somebody is. We are often told, “Don’t try to guess some…”

“Q Another question I had was about the research you have done into the effect on pregnant women and children. We heard a little bit on that from the chief medical officers this morning. What effect do smoking and vaping have on the unborn baby and children? Professor Linda Bauld: As you know yourself, it is one of the …”