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Manufacturing Employment
12. Mr. Robert Syms (Poole): What estimate he has made of the level of manufacturing employment in Britain in the current year and in the next two years. [61756]
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Ms Patricia Hewitt): In line with the convention adopted by previous Administrations, the Government do not publish employment forecasts.
Mr. Syms: That is very sad. Given the--[Interruption.]
Madam Speaker: Order. Mr. McNulty, you are not in a public meeting now. You have been making comments continually from a sedentary position throughout Question Time. They are unwanted and unnecessary.
Mr. Syms: Given the sad announcements of further redundancies today following a number of such announcements over the past several months, and with many workers facing unemployment and a hard Christmas, does the Minister not consider that, for workers, the Prime Minister's recent comments that economic stability is sexy was both insensitive and in very poor taste?
Ms Hewitt: As I am sure the hon. Gentleman is aware, the Government--this applies to all Ministers--are extremely concerned about every job lost. That is why we are investing so much--£5 billion--in the new deal to counter unemployment, and why we have put in place a rapid response task force to deal with large-scale redundancies when they arise.
I remind the hon. Gentleman that since the general election employment has risen by 400,000--that is one more person in a job every two minutes. Business fears most of all a return to the boom and bust of the Conservative years, to which we are putting an end.
Mr. Peter L. Pike (Burnley):
May I assure my hon. Friend that the view of manufacturing employers in a manufacturing constituency such as Burnley is that the most serious threat to the future of manufacturing stability and jobs in manufacturing is the present attitude of the Opposition to Europe and to the euro? Will the Government continue to recognise the need for, and give support to, research and development, which is crucial if Britain is to remain at the sharp end of manufacturing and be able to retain jobs in manufacturing, not only for the next two years but for the years beyond?
Ms Hewitt:
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is high time that Conservative Members stopped talking the economy down. However, given the competitive challenges that every sector of the economy faces in the modern world, and especially given the global conditions that we face at present, it is essential that we take every step possible to improve productivity. That is why my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer devoted the pre-Budget report particularly to a discussion of the measures that we can take to improve productivity through, for example, R and D, to which my hon. Friend referred.
13. Mr. Gordon Prentice (Pendle):
What estimate he has made of the amount of counterfeit currency in circulation. [61758]
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Ms Patricia Hewitt):
There are no such estimates, but the number of counterfeit coins and notes is believed to be a very small proportion of the total number of notes and coins in circulation.
Mr. Prentice:
It is disappointing that there are no estimates. When the new euro notes and coins start circulating in continental Europe in January 2002, there is a danger that counterfeiters could have a field day. Is it not the case that notes and coins could be circulating in
Ms Hewitt:
As my hon. Friend is aware, the Royal Mint and the Bank of England keep the security and the design features of United Kingdom notes and coins under continuous review to keep them secure against counterfeiting. The European central bank, which is responsible for the notes and coins issued within the euro, is similarly taking measures and drawing upon the expertise of central banks to ensure that the wave of counterfeiting that my hon. Friend fears does not materialise.
Miss Anne McIntosh (Vale of York):
I have in my possession a euro note from a Belgian bank. It looks remarkably similar to a gift token issued by Marks and Spencer. What satisfaction can the Minister give my constituents who hope to bring their euros back in perhaps the year 2003 after holidaying in Spain, for example, and spend them in their nearest Marks and Spencer store? What checks will there be to ensure that there is no confusion between the two different notes?
Ms Hewitt:
As I have said, the European central bank and the central banks of the euro zone are taking steps to ensure that euro notes and coins are proof against counterfeiting. I am sure that Marks and Spencer, if it is not aware of the resemblance to which the hon. Lady has drawn the attention of the House, will be taking its own steps to ensure that no such confusion arises.
Education and Training
14. Fiona Mactaggart (Slough): What discussions he has had with representatives of business and industry about incentives to encourage them to contribute to education and training. [61759]
The Paymaster General (Mr. Geoffrey Robinson): In recent months we have been engaged in discussions with a wide range of representatives of business and industry during our seminars, one of which in particular focused on skills. A clear consensus has emerged between the Government and industry leaders on the importance of skills to the economy, and we are working out a joint programme.
Fiona Mactaggart: Several companies in my constituency were excited by the Chancellor's statement in his pre-Budget report that, as an incentive to businesses to offer expertise and management help to schools and colleges, businesses will be allowed to claim tax relief when they second staff to schools and colleges. All those companies are involved in formal and informal ways in supporting education in Slough. They are anxious to ensure that they are consulted about ways to make the proposal work before it is implemented. If it is based on real experience, the results could be excellent; if not, they could be rather poor.
Mr. Robinson: I am pleased that my hon. Friend welcomes the initiative. We are keen to bring industry and schools closer together. Tax relief for companies that second high-level staff to schools is a good idea in itself. I can assure my hon. Friend that there will be the fullest consultation on that, as there has been on all other matters that involve industry.
Smoking
3.32 pm
The Secretary of State for Health (Mr. Frank Dobson): Today I present to the House our White Paper on tobacco which is entitled "Smoking Kills". That is a fact, and it has been known for years. That is why a lot of adults gave up smoking, but the number of adults who smoke has stopped falling. Worse still, the number of children who smoke is going up, with more girls than boys taking up the deadly habit.
It is a deadly habit. Out of 1,000 20-year-olds who smoke regularly, one will be murdered, six will die in road accidents, 250 will die in middle age from smoking and a further 250 will be killed by smoking later in life. Smoking causes 84 per cent. of deaths from lung cancer and 83 per cent. of deaths from other lung diseases such as bronchitis. It causes not just lung cancer, but cancer of the mouth, the larynx, the oesophagus, the bladder, the kidneys, the stomach and the pancreas. It causes one in seven deaths from heart disease. Smoking is very high among people who are severely mentally ill.
Smoking is now the principal avoidable cause of premature deaths in Britain. It hits the worst-off people hardest of all, and it is one of the principal causes of the health gap that leads to poorer people being ill more often and dying sooner. It harms people who do not smoke; smoking harms babies in the womb.
All those are good reasons why the Government are so determined to turn things round. Unless we tackle smoking, we cannot possibly achieve the reductions that everyone wants to see in deaths and illness from cancer and heart disease.
Unless we reduce smoking, we cannot reduce the inequalities in health that bear down most on the worst-off. We want to help existing smokers to quit the habit and help children and young people not to get addicted in the first place.
We face an uphill struggle because the tobacco companies are committed to doing everything they can to promote the sale of cigarettes. They have to keep recruiting new smokers to make up for the 120,000 of their loyal customers whom they kill off every year.
Most smokers take up the habit when they are children or young people. Few people start smoking once they are grown up. For years, the tobacco industry has poured millions into highly sophisticated advertising campaigns. People of all ages, including children, have been exposed to clever and eye-catching advertising material. All that will now change. Tobacco advertising is going to end, and it is going to end soon.
The White Paper spells out the measures that we will take, which will be targeted on children to protect them from being exposed to tobacco promotions. It will require sustained effort over a long period. Some benefits will not show up for decades, but unless we act now they will never show up. We will also be trying to help the seven out of 10 smokers who want to quit the habit. All that calls for a concerted plan of action, and that is what the White Paper outlines.
From 1989 until the last general election, the previous Government helped to block all European efforts to ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship. We changed that. We put Britain's full weight into getting a European
directive through, and we succeeded. I pay tribute to the negotiating skills and powers of persuasion of my right hon. Friend the Minister for Public Health in achieving that.
As a result, a Europe-wide anti-smoking framework is in place. In this parliamentary Session, we propose to end tobacco advertising on billboards and in the printed media. Most tobacco sponsorship will end by 2003. Formula One motor racing, as a global event, may qualify for exemption until 2006 if--and only if--tobacco sponsorship funding and advertising are already being reduced.
The European directive is intended to keep to a minimum tobacco advertising in shops, and that will be fully applied in Britain through the law. The tobacco advertising ban will be backed up by an anti-smoking campaign. Over the next three years, we will put £50 million into an anti-smoking campaign. We want to make sure that children and young people no longer fall into the trap of seeing smoking as cool and a passport to adulthood.
We have negotiated with representatives of the hospitality industry a code of conduct for reducing smoking in public places. For a long time it has been illegal to sell cigarettes to children under 16. That law is frequently broken, so we are taking action to increase compliance by shopkeepers, and to promote more effective action by trading standards officers. Some individual shopkeepers and others knowingly and repeatedly flout that law. To deal with repeated offenders, we propose to introduce a new criminal offence, and we are looking at the practicalities of such a measure.
Following discussions with my officials, the National Association of Cigarette Machine Operators is issuing new rules on the siting and operation of cigarette vending machines, to make them inaccessible to children. We have also encouraged the companies that sell age-restricted goods such as alcohol, cigarettes and fireworks to develop an industry-wide proof of age card.
The package of measures is a tobacco advertising ban; a £50 million anti-smoking campaign; a crackdown on sales to children; a new criminal offence for repeated sales to children; new restrictions on vending machines; and the proof of age card. That package should make a real impact on the illegal sales of tobacco to children.
We must also consider those who are smoking already. Every 10 years, more than 1 million British people are killed by smoking. Most of the millions who will be killed by tobacco over the next few decades are already adult smokers. Most smokers say they want to stop, and they are the people we particularly want to help. If they keep on smoking, there is a 50:50 risk that they will eventually be killed by their habit, but if they stop smoking before they become ill, they will avoid most of the extra risk of death. It is really worth while for people to quit smoking.
As part of our effort to help those seven out of 10 adult smokers who want to quit, we are investing up to £60 million in the first ever comprehensive national health service scheme to help them to give up their addiction. That will involve all health professionals--midwives, health visitors, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and dentists--taking every appropriate opportunity to counsel patients to give up smoking.
That effort will be particularly targeted on smokers living in those deprived areas that have been chosen as health action zones. We shall encourage the use of
nicotine replacement therapy, especially targeted on health action zones where free NRT products willbe available for the worst off. Health improvement programmes in every part of the country will be expected to address the need to reduce smoking, particularly in the worst-off areas.
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