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ASH Daily News

23 December 2004=20

[View html version: http://www.globalink.org/nbuk]

HEADLINES

Welsh MP to use private member's bill to push for smoking ban
Liverpool wins key debate in House of Lords
Yorkshire MP calls for cut in tobacco taxes=20
BAT factory reaches end of the road


FULL TEXT

Welsh MP to use private member's bill to push for smoking ban

Smoking in public places in Wales could be banned by next summer if an
enabling law is passed by Parliament before the next general election.
Cardiff North MP Julie Morgan plans to try to get a private member's
bill though the House of Commons before a possible May election.=20

Ms Morgan said she felt compelled to introduce the Bill - similar to
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff's which failed to become law earlier this
year - after she came fourth in the annual ballot for the right to
introduce a Private Member's bill. =20

If Ms Morgan succeeds, the Welsh Assembly could be given powers to ban
smoking in all public places. If the bill fails, Welsh hopes of getting
a comprehensive ban will rest on the national government introducing a
public health bill, including provisions for smokefree workplaces, a
process which will take much longer.=20

Western Mail (Cardiff), 22/12/04=20


Liverpool wins key debate in House of Lords

Liverpool's move to ban smoking in public places within the city has won
a slot for a debate in the House of Lords. Peers will discuss the
private bill in February. However the bill may be short-lived if a
General Election is called in the Spring. Liverpool's Prohibition of
Smoking in Places of Work Bill will receive its first reading in the
Lords, without extended debate, on 24 January.=20

Liverpool Daily Post, 21/12/04
=20


Yorkshire MP calls for cut in tobacco taxes=20

Taxes on cigarettes and tobacco should be cut not increased, a South
Yorkshire MP claims. He believes that will tackle the black market
trade of cheap and more dangerous products flooding into the country.
Michael Clapham, MP for Barnsley West and Penistone, made the
controversial call as the Government continues to raise tax on tobacco
to try to price people out of the habit. Mr Clapham says that because
UK tobacco taxes are much higher than in Europe, it has led to a rise in
smuggling with millions of pounds worth of products illegally brought
into the country every year.

Barnsley Today, 21/12/04



BAT factory reaches end of the road

The closure of a Tees Valley cigarette factory, which led to the loss of
500 jobs, has been completed, it emerged today.

British American Tobacco confirmed the decommissioning of its Rothmans
plant at Lingfield Point, Darlington has finished.

A skeleton workforce of 25, kept on to oversee the shutdown, have now
left the firm, with just two workers remaining until the end of January.

The factory stopped production in May as manufacturing was switched to
the firm's Southampton site.

Teeside Evening Gazette, 22/12/04



Kindly note that this is the last issue of ASH Daily News for 2004. The
next edition will be on Tuesday 4th January 2005. Season's greetings to
all. =20




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Amanda Sandford
Research Manager
ASH
102 Clifton Street
LONDON
EC2A 4HW
t 020 7739 5902
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amanda.sandford@ash.org.uk=20