10. The Smoke-free Premises and Vehicles (Wales) Regulations 2020

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:54 pm on 20 October 2020.

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Photo of Andrew RT Davies Andrew RT Davies Conservative 4:54, 20 October 2020

If I could seek a point of clarity from the Minister when she responds to this debate. On the Welsh Conservative benches, we have a free vote on this issue. As someone who's lost two individuals to lung cancer—two very dear individuals to lung cancer—I cannot see a coherent argument when it comes to smoking, but I accept a certain percentage of people in society do choose to smoke, and if they do choose to smoke in their own space in their private dwellings or their private space, without inflicting that on someone else, then I think that's their right to do that. And this is the difficulty I have with these regulations. I'd grateful for an explanation—and I'm sure other Members on the Conservative benches and hopefully other Members of the Senedd would be grateful for an explanation—as to how far these regulations reach into that private space. We heard the Chair of the constitutional and legal affairs committee touch on dwellings and workplaces in his remarks, in particular the impact on human rights. So, I'm not coming at this as someone who's a denier of the effects of smoking, because I believe passionately that we need to stamp smoking out, but I do believe passionately in the right of individuals to exercise their own discretion in their own space—their private space. I noticed that the Minister didn't allude to that in her opening remarks. She referred mainly to hospitals and other public spaces where we all subscribe to trying to seek a ban to stop smoking in those public spaces. So, if we could get that clarity from the Minister, I'd be most grateful, in her responding remarks.