Health Bill — New law against purchase of tobacco on behalf of children — rejected — 12 Oct 2009 at 20:30
MP, did not vote.
The majority of MPs voted against considering a new clause for inclusion in the Health Bill, which would have added a new offence into Section 7 (Sale of tobacco, &c. to persons under sixteen) of the Children and Young Person's Act 1933, which said:[1]
- A person commits an offence if he buys or attempts to buy tobacco on behalf of an individual aged under 18.
- Where a person is charged with such an offence it is a defence that he had no reason to suspect that the individual was aged under 18.
- A person guilty of such an offence is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.
The discussion was partly concerned with the fact that the government had -- on the day of this debate -- claimed to have published some long awaited regulations on this matter and emailed them to members.[2]
These regulations are not on the web under draft statutory instruments for 12 October. These draft regulations were also not in the Library or the Vote office.[3] And the emails containing the draft regulations, which were in answer to this proposed clause, were sent halfway through the debate.[4]
This issue of regulations not being available even for a Parliamentary debate about them didn't make it into the press.[5]
- [1] Mike Penning MP, House of Commons, 12 October 2009
- [2] Gillian Merron MP, House of Commons, 12 October 2009
- [3] Christopher Chope MP, House of Commons, 12 October 2009
- [4] Sandra Gidley MP, House of Commons, 12 October 2009
- [5] Yesterday in Parliament, The Guardian, 13 October 2009
Party Summary
Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.
What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.
What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.
What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.
Party | Majority (No) | Minority (Aye) | Both | Turnout |
Con | 0 | 136 (+2 tell) | 0 | 71.5% |
DUP | 0 | 1 | 0 | 11.1% |
Independent | 2 | 2 | 0 | 66.7% |
Independent Labour | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100.0% |
Lab | 274 (+2 tell) | 3 | 1 | 80.2% |
LDem | 0 | 47 | 0 | 74.6% |
PC | 0 | 3 | 0 | 100.0% |
SDLP | 1 | 0 | 0 | 33.3% |
Total: | 278 | 192 | 1 | 75.8% |
Rebel Voters - sorted by party
MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division
Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote
Name | Constituency | Party | Vote |
Claire Curtis-Thomas | Crosby | Lab | aye |
Roger Godsiff | Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath | Lab | aye |
Alan Simpson | Nottingham South | Lab | aye |
Jim McGovern | Dundee West | Lab (minister) | both |