The health secretary has hailed the government's new Tobacco and Vapes Bill as "groundbreaking" legislation. Vaping and smoking in playgrounds and outside schools could be banned, but Labour has rowed back on plans to make it illegal to smoke in pub beer gardens. Wes Streeting said the change was made due to the "pressures on UK hospitality". Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00The Tobacco and Vapes Bill that we're introducing into Parliament today is a groundbreaking historic piece of public health legislation,
00:06not only ensuring the creation of Britain's first ever smoke-free generation,
00:10by making sure that children growing up in our country today are never legally able to buy cigarettes,
00:15we'll be clamping down on smoking outside schools, hospitals, children's playgrounds,
00:22and taking bold action to clamp down on the scourge of youth vaping,
00:27not just through tackling the flavours, the marketing, the packaging that's clearly been designed to addict children to nicotine,
00:33but also introducing a new licensing and enforcement regime so that retailers aren't selling vapes to underage customers.
00:41Taken together, this is a bold package to tackle one of Britain's biggest killers and to tackle addiction,
00:47and it's something that I hope will command cross-party support that we will all be able to be proud of.
00:52Smoking remains one of Britain's biggest killers. 80,000 lives a year lost.
00:57The cost to the taxpayer and to the NHS is enormous.
01:01It's right we're taking bold action through the smoke-free generation,
01:05through tackling outdoor smoking in places like schools and playgrounds and hospitals,
01:12because of the direct impact and the risk of second-hand smoking.
01:16We've considered carefully whether or not to extend an outdoor smoking ban to outdoor hospitality spaces,
01:22like pub beer gardens, for example.
01:25And as ever, we've had to judge the upside opportunities in terms of public health
01:31with the downside risks either to people's liberties or to people's livelihoods.
01:35And given the pressures on UK hospitality, which I think are well known and we've seen in recent years,
01:40we think we're drawing the balance in the right place with this bill.
01:43We're going to consult widely on all of the measures in the bill,
01:46and as ever, people will tell us if they think we've got the balance right,
01:49and we'll be consulting once the bill has passed through Parliament.