A minister has insisted that Government plans to create a “smoke-free generation” will apply in Northern Ireland, amid unionist concerns.
Health minister Andrew Gwynne sought to assure TUV leader Jim Allister that the Bill would apply in Northern Ireland after the MP for North Antrim claimed it would be “unenforceable” due to the region’s “subjection to foreign laws” under the Windsor Framework.
The framework, and its predecessor the Northern Ireland Protocol, requires checks and customs paperwork on goods moving from Great Britain into Northern Ireland.
Under the arrangements, which were designed to ensure no hardening of the Irish land border post-Brexit, Northern Ireland continues to follow many EU trade and customs rules.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which was debated in the Commons on Tuesday, would prevent anyone born after January 1 2009 from legally smoking by gradually raising the age at which tobacco can be bought.
During the Bill’s second reading Mr Allister said: “The Secretary of State this afternoon said that this was a four nations Bill. I welcome that, I trust that is right.
“That’s the point I want to test in my contribution and to seek reassurance from the minister about that.
“And the reason I test it is this – that Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland alone is still subject to the EU’s tobacco directive and we’re subject to the EU’s tobacco directive because it is one of 289 EU laws that are listed in annex two of the Protocol, or the Windsor Framework as it is now called, which remain in force in a part of this United Kingdom.
“And that tobacco directive at Article 24 says this: ‘Member states may not prohibit or restrict the placing on the market of tobacco or related products’.
“Now, does this Bill, by its necessary steps, restrict the placing on the market of tobacco? If it does, then this Bill will fall foul of the tobacco directive, and therefore will be unenforceable in Northern Ireland because of our ridiculous subjection to foreign laws that we don’t make and can’t change.”
Mr Allister is introducing a private member’s bill on December 6 that he said would “liberate Northern Ireland from the bind of foreign jurisdiction and foreign law”.
Mr Gwynne intervened to say: “I fully understand his concern here. I really do.
“That’s why this Government, and to give credit to the previous government, worked so hard to get this to a four-nation approach.
“I want to give him and the House the assurance it is the responsibility of the UK Government to ensure compatibility of the Bill with the Windsor Framework.
“The Government has taken into account all domestic and international obligations in bringing this Bill today.”
Mr Allister replied: “I must say that gives me no assurance, because if the Government’s commitment is to ensure compliance with the Windsor Framework, it’s the Windsor Framework which imposes the EU law on Northern Ireland.”
Mr Gwynne again attempted to reassure the TUV member, saying “this is a United Kingdom law, it covers all four nations of the United Kingdom, and we are assured that it is in compliance with the requirements of the Windsor Framework, this law will stand”.
Mr Allister referred to the previous government’s Rwanda Bill and Legacy Act, both of which have been scrapped by Labour upon entering Government, saying “both of them fell under the supremacy of EU law”.
Despite his continued concern on the applicability of the Bill, when opening his remarks, the member for North Antrim said he would vote in favour of the smoking ban.
He said: “I will admit to some scepticism about enforceability in terms of the age escalator, but I think it does fundamentally address a huge problem in our society.
“There can be no doubt that smoking is a killer, and therefore the responsibility on us all is to seek to diminish the death toll.”
