- Cymraeg
- English
 |
Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
 |
The Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee's Report on its Inquiry into the Use and Regulation of Sunbeds in Wales
February 10, 2010 12:00 AM
By Peter Black in Plenary
By Peter Black in Plenary
Peter Black: As Dai was relating the fashion of the eighteenth century, I was thinking exactly the same, but, if my memory serves me correctly, the powder that they used at that time to give them a pale complexion was as harmful as the sunbeds that are used today, in the sense that some of the chemicals in those powders were pretty carcinogenic and even deadlier. So, we should note that fashion is sometimes not good for you under any circumstances.
I support the recommendations in this report and would look to introduce a licensing regime for sunbeds as soon as possible. When considering such issues, the principle that we must start from is that people should be protected from themselves. However, if people are adults and are able to make an informed choice, then they should not be prevented from making that choice. That is why the central recommendation on prohibiting the use of sunbeds by under-18s is the right way forward, because evidence to the committee stressed that sunbeds were particularly harmful to young children. We have seen examples of young teenagers burning themselves badly on sunbeds, sometimes irreparably, so it seems to me that any legislation should be there to enable adults to make their choice and to offer protection to those who are not in a position to make an informed choice or who might be damaged by using sunbeds in that way. We must acknowledge that adults will use sunbeds because that is the fashion-although we will give them lots of lectures, as Dai Lloyd has just done, about the damage that they are doing to themselves using them. At the end of the day, it is their choice, but I am sure that they will now make that choice armed with better information.
Therefore, we need to protect those high-risk groups if we can, and we need to ensure that we have well trained staff; that good advice is given to people when they are using sunbeds, and that information is available to people when they go to a salon to use the sunbeds. A point was well made earlier that the equipment in these salons needs to meet the latest standards for Britain and Europe on sunbed irradiance levels. It seems that licensing can achieve all that without introducing too great a burden on the owners of the salons, or on those who wish to use them and who are capable of making that decision for themselves.
Val Lloyd referred to recommendation 2 earlier, about the need to seek legislative competence and introduce new laws to license, regulate and, if necessary, impose liabilities. I would be grateful if the Minister could give us some assurance that the private Member's Bill that is currently going through the Houses of Parliament, and on which I understand the Government is offering as much support as possible, will give us the competence to introduce that regulatory regime. I am not fussed about how we get the powers-and I would prefer us to have them outright-but it would be better if we were able to get them through this Bill rather than through an LCO, particularly this close to a general election. In supporting that private Member's Bill, we need to be assured that it contains the necessary clauses that will enable the Welsh Government, if not the UK Government, to introduce the sort of regulation envisaged in this report. I hope that the Minister can give us that assurance.
Many of the points raised in the report have already been covered by other Members. I conclude, therefore, by saying that the sooner we can outlaw unstaffed sunbed salons, the better, and the sooner we can ensure proper regulation to stop a teenager from putting coins in a slot and burning themselves to a crisp without any supervision or advice, the better. Therefore, once this private Member's Bill becomes law-assuming that it does-I hope that we can get the regulation and the licensing in place as soon as possible to protect those who are not able to make informed choices for themselves.
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats