Where there’s smoke, there’s a fine
A rising number of people are being taken to court for smoking where they shouldn’t
AUTHORITIES are beginning to crack down on smoking in smokefree areas after years of very little action, new figures suggest.
The latest statistics from the Ministry of Justice show that 531 people were prosecuted across England and Wales for smoking in a smoke-free place in 2018.
While still a relatively small number in absolute terms, it is more than double the 243 seen in 2017.
It is also by far the highest number of prosecutions seen in the last decade.
Figures go back as far as 2008 - the year after the smoking ban was introduced.
That year, there were just 99 prosecutions.
Some 386 of the 531 prosecutions seen in 2018 resulted in a conviction - again, more than any other year on record.
Most of those convicted (369) were given a fine - in one case of up to £500, and in most cases between
£201 and £250.
In four cases the offender was given a conditional discharge, which means they will not be sentenced unless a further offence is committed within a stated period.
One person was committed to another court, and in 12 cases the offender was “otherwise dealt with”.
The smoking ban was first introduced in 2007, making it illegal to smoke in all enclosed workplaces.
Since then, 1,942 people in England and Wales have been prosecuted for the crime - 27% of them in 2018 alone. More recently, smoking has been banned outside hospitals and schools in Wales as of last summer 2019.
The manager or owner of an area has the responsibility for taking reasonable steps to ensure the area remains smoke-free.
The expectation is that the majority of workplaces and public places, as well as individual smokers, will adhere to the smoke-free law without the need for enforcement.
Penalties for breaking the law will be taken where the local authority feels incidents have been serious enough to warrant this.
Local councils are responsible for enforcing the legislation in their own area.
Cllr Ian Hudspeth, chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “Since the smoking ban was introduced in 2007, smoking rates have fallen to their lowest ever levels while support for the ban among both smokers and nonsmokers has gone up.
“Smoke-free public places are popular and this is thanks in part to the vigilance and enforcement of the ban by councils’ environmental health teams, who issue warnings and offer advice to those lighting up illegally.
“Prosecutions and handing out fines for breaking the law are a last resort, but councils want to do all they can to protect the public from passive smoking. “However, we still need to tackle certain areas, including people smoking in work-based vehicles and in particular types of premises such as shisha bars.
“Councils can also help the Government achieve its ambition of eliminating smoking by 2030 if they have adequate, long-term funding for their public health services.”