Parliament

Sarah Green asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care what steps are being taken to strengthen the enforcement of no smoking policies on NHS hospital grounds in England.

Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s MP for Gorton and Denton, told her: “Smoking has been prohibited by law in virtually all enclosed and substantially enclosed workplaces and public places, including hospital buildings, throughout the United Kingdom since July 2007. Smoke-free legislation in England forms part of the Health Act 2006 and The Children and Families Act 2014.Enforcement powers for smoke-free places are given to local authorities, who must identify appropriate officers to enforce smoke-free regulations. 

“The most appropriate team for this will vary by local authority but powers are most commonly assigned to teams of officers covering environmental health, health and safety or a similar area. Smoke-free policies in National Health Service hospital grounds in England go beyond requirements by law and are developed and implemented by the local NHS trust.”

Anyone visiting hospital emergency departments will have seen the demands currently being placed on security teams. The notion that they can keep a constant check on smokers is for the birds without additional funding and staffing. Again, the swiftest solution is to promote vaping to staff, patients and visitors and extend the vape shop provision in Birmingham to Trusts across the UK.

Mary Kelly Foy asked the Department for Health and Social Care if steps will be taken to assess the potential merits of introducing of a polluter pays levy on tobacco companys to fund smoking cessation services.

Foy wants the money raised to be directed towards increased funding for the swap-to-stop scheme, tobacco control enforcement and the national smoke-free pregnancy incentive scheme; she wondered if the Department is open to that.

Andrew Gwynne responded: “The Government is funding a broad package of measures to tackle the harm caused by smoking, including additional funding for local authority Stop Smoking Services, more enforcement activity around illegal tobacco and vape products, as well as recently launching a national smoke-free pregnancy incentive programme. On the issue of a polluter pays levy on the tobacco industry, the Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy at fiscal events in the context of public finances. The Government keeps all taxes under review during its yearly Budget process.”

Continuing, he added: “The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will be the biggest public health intervention in a generation, improving healthy life expectancy and reducing the number of lives lost to the biggest killers. Alongside introducing a progressive smoking ban to ensure the next generation can never legally be sold tobacco, the Bill will also stop vapes and other consumer nicotine products from being deliberately branded and advertised to appeal to children. We are additionally considering a range of new measures to put us on track to a smoke-free United Kingdom and will set out more details soon.”

Considering an additional range of measures? Well that sound good, doesn’t it!

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV

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Dave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.