AS a doctor who has all too often seen wholly preventable suffering and premature deaths caused by smoking, I am dismayed by the Government's failure to introduce a bill to ban tobacco advertising in this session of parliament. This means that a manifesto commitment made in 1997 will still not have been implemented by at least the end of 2002. Will it ever?

The Government and scientific experts agree that 120,000 people die from smoking every year. Studies clearly show that half of the children today who start smoking and continue to smoke throughout their lives will be killed prematurely. Because our area has a higher proportion of smokers than the national average our children will suffer a disproportionate share of these deaths. Less than five months ago Alan Milburn said, in the debate about the proposal to ban cigarette advertising:

"The Tories ask for evidence (that advertising encourages people to smoke). It screams out to them from the billboards across the country: advertising works, smoking kills. Where the previous Government failed to act, this Government will now do so. We will act to protect children; we will act to reduce smoking; we will act to save lives."

We were also told by the Government that this bill was necessary because it would save at least 3,000 lives per year. We were told in the election campaign that health was being put at the top of the political agenda. Why Hazel Blears, as a north west MP and new health minister, would allow this betrayal baffles me. Doctors and nurses dealing day-to-day with the ravages caused by smoking will be especially disillusioned.

I conclude that firstly, the Government doesn't attach any real priority to crucial public health measures which will protect the health of children; and, secondly, that despite their huge majority the Government remains unwilling to take action that might provoke opposition from powerful vested interests like the tobacco industry and its cronies.

I only hope that the Government will listen to the storm of protest resulting from this decision and deliver at last on what they have so regularly promised.

Dr RICHARD EDWARDS