Scotland prepares for smoking banITV.com - UK
Smokers in Scotland will have to wrap up warmer than usual as a ban in public places comes into force over the weekend. The total ...
Plan to home in on breakers of smoke ban
18 Mar 2006
COUNCIL officials are set to follow pub and club customers home if they refuse to give their names after being caught breaking the smoking ban.
Enforcement officers will go undercover in licensed premises across Edinburgh to catch people flouting Scotland's smoking ban, which starts next Sunday.
Council officials, with the power to issue fixed-penalty notices, will mingle with customers to ensure the ban is being enforced. And, if a smoker breaking the rules refuses to give their name, the officer can follow them home.
In Edinburgh, four smoking ban officers will join a team of 146 environmental officers implementing the ban as part of their mainstream duties.
Under the new legislation, enforcers will issue fixed-penalty notices of £50 to smokers, while pub owners and managers face a £200 fine for allowing them to smoke and another £200 fine if they do not conspicuously display no-smoking notices.
Gordon Greenhill, head the city's environmental health department, said: "In the first instance we will ask a pub manager if they are aware that smoking is going on in their premises and give them the opportunity to advise us how they will be compliant with the legislation.
"If they continue to serve smokers they will be issued with a fixed-penalty notice."
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"will mingle with customers to ensure the ban is being enforced"
What customers?
- A Newsletter Reader
Smokers up in arms
3-10-06
Is the ban on smoking in public places wrong? Are we sleepwalking into a nanny state? Is it an ill-conceived, badly thought-out piece of legislation that has little to do with improving our health and everything to do with preventing us having fun? Jack McKeown talked to some people who answered ‘yes’ to the above.
How can the Scottish Parliament wax lyrical about the benefits of banning smoking in public places if they then try to ignore their own guidelines? Despite encouraging companies not to provide external smoking shelters after the smoking ban comes in, it then emerged that plans were afoot for a smoking shelter to be provided for MSPs to have a puff, at a cost of up to £40,000. This scheme was swiftly abandoned when the media got their clawsinto it.
But while our politicians may, as ever, consider themselves a special case, there are more pressing issues at hand than our irksome politicians trying to wheedle their way out of setting an example to the rest of us.
By far the most anxious about the impending ban on smoking in public places are publicans themselves, whose livelihoods stand to suffer if smokers stay away in their droves.
One such person is Alan Bannerman, owner of the Phoenix Bar in Dundee’s Nethergate. Alan (58) is against the ban on almost every conceivable level.
“Smokers are heroes,” said Alan, who himself gave up smoking 15 years ago. “They die early, taking away costs from the NHS. They pay an enormous amount in tax that funds not just their own care but that of a lot of other people as well.
“If everybody stopped smoking Gordon Brown would be in trouble. He’s already raided the pensions, where else is he going to get money from?
“It’s heavy-handed Government. They like to wrap people up in cotton wool. Why don’t they just ban the sale and manufacture of cigarettes.
“They don’t restrict heroin or crack cocaine, they just ban it. People aren’t about to stop smoking because of this heavy-handed nannying. If I need a nanny I’ll put an ad in the paper.
“I don’t just think it’ll affect business—I know it will affect business.”
Alan is not kind in his words towards those responsible for introducing the ban—of Health Minister Andy Kerr he says, “Heavy-handed clowns like him should keep their noses out of my business.
“He should concentrate instead on cleaning up the hospitals where one in five patients are coming out of hospital with a disease.
“And (Dundee licensing board chairman) Neil Powrie seems to think that my job is his gift. He’s bullying me! It’s not all I’m bothered about, but this ban will hit me in the pocket and at the end of the day it’s a business I run.”
Despite his opposition to the ban, Alan and his staff are taking part in a study into its effects. Researchers from the University of Dundee measured their health a month before the ban and will repeat the tests one and two months after to gauge whether there has been an improvement.
Despite this, Alan doesn’t think the ban will have much impact on our health, or that people who stay away from pubs because of the ban will be replaced by non smokers.
“People who drink, smoke—simple as that. Bars are not full of health-conscious pony-tailed people preparing for their next visit to the gym.
“Do you think it will stop youngsters smoking? Take a look outside and you’ll see plenty of schoolchildren having a fag. I don’t remember banning alcohol in prohibition-era America stopping people drinking. The only thing it did was finance the mafia.”
On the other side of Dundee, in Harlequins Bar on Albert Street, staff have come up with a novel way of coping with the ban by giving smokers something to keep their hands busy.
“I’d got a hold of some Play Doh,” explained barman Ally Murphy (28).
“I’m trying to quit myself so I was just standing there playing with it and suddenly everyone else wanted a go.
“We all started making wee sculptures and things, and I suddenly realised no-one had had a cigarette for at least half an hour.”
Ally has a barman’s pithy take on the ban.
“It might actually make people healthier because you’re not allowed to drink on the street in Dundee, so if you go out for a smoke you have to leave your pint inside. You can’t drink and smoke together.”
The barflies in Harlequins are not so keen on it, though. “This is a working man’s pub. About 90% of the people in here smoke,” said 56-year-old John McNab, puffing thoughtfully on his pipe.
“My dad died from lung cancer, ironically just when I started smoking. He was 56, the same age as I am now. I used to have the occasional cigar and before I knew it I was smoking five packs of Hamlets a day. I think it was the stress.
“I agree with the ban in pubs where they sell food, but this is a working man’s pub.”
John, himself a barman in the Star and Garter pub, has written a poem called 2006, lamenting the pressures barmen might face under the ban—such as chasing punters who’ve gone to the toilet for a fly smoke.
His fellow-drinker Willie Stewart (68) goes through a hefty 50 grams of tobacco a day and is outraged by the ban. “We fought for this country and now they’re telling us what to do,” he raged, slamming his fist on the table.
While pub owners might be against the ban, it’s in nightclubs where the real difficulties are likely to be encountered. Unlike in pubs, it’s not so easy for vast numbers of clubbers to be allowed to congregate outside for a smoke, and this is where it begins to look like the ban hasn’t been fully thought through.
Colin Rattray (37), general manager at Fat Sam’s in Dundee, supports the ban in principle, but foresees some fairly major problems with its implementation. The city-centre nightclub is looking to build a rooftop terrace that will give smokers an opportunity to light up within the club’s premises.
To this end, they have demolished the former Rok Stop pub next door and are building a live music venue that will have the rooftop terrace above it.
However, even if things go smoothly, the new area won’t be ready until September at the earliest. In the meantime, Fat Sam’s faces the same problems every other large club in Scotland has in dealing with the ban. They plan to let people out to smoke, operating a hand-stamping system so they don’t have to queue to go back in. But this is far from ideal.
“At the moment we’ve got a capacity of 2100 and potentially that’s going to rise to 3000,” said Colin.
“I would say that around two-thirds of our clientele smoke. Obviously they’re not all going to go for a cigarette at the same time, but I reckon we might have upwards of 300 people on the street at once—and maybe as many as 700 or 800.”
This, Colin reckons, will cause huge “control” problems, both for bouncers and the police. Traffic will be brought to a halt and there’s much more likelihood of drunken affrays breaking out.
He also fears large crowds of street smokers will become feeding grounds for drug dealers able to peddle their wares with far less risk of detection than inside a club, where large and watchful bouncers are on the lookout, and policy is to detain those caught with drugs and hand them over to police.
“As well as that, it might be that when people want to go back in they appear as though they’ve had too much alcohol and are denied entry. Whereas if they were already in, as long as they weren’t falling over and causing trouble, they might not get noticed.”
Fat Sam’s hasn’t yet decided how to deal with people who infringe the ban. It may be that they will be asked to leave but this is likely to lead to confrontation—something the club wants to avoid.
“Problems like public disorder haven’t been thought through by the Scottish Executive. We feel we need to have an area within the club purely from a control point of view.
“Generally though I am in favour of the ban because I can see the longer term health benefits for the nation. But it will cost businesses money, either in terms of loss of business or building a facility for smokers to use.”
Tayside Police, asked if the force had a plan in place to deal with the crowds that are likely to form outside busy pubs and clubs and the possibility of drug dealers operating in comparative safety, said via a spokeswoman, “Tayside Police work closely with the local licensed trade and we will proactively monitor the situation and deal with any issues that arise.
“Officers carry out regular patrols of the areas around nightclubs and licensed premises and Dundee also has an extensive network of CCTV cameras.”
Despite these potential pitfalls, supporters of the ban point you in the direction of people to whom smoking has done terrible things. They’ll tell you they regret starting the habit and that restricting smokers’ options is a good thing.
Yet Arbroath resident Alex McCann has lung cancer and is dead against the ban.
“My first wife died of cancer in 1991,” he said. “Who’d have believed that I’d be next.” Alex (69) has cultivated a black humour to deal with the disease.
“I always think, what would Monty Python say about this, and that makes me laugh. When I was diagnosed my first thought was for my wife. We’d both found happiness after being on our own for a number of years and we both thought we’d cracked it. The only way to deal with it is to laugh at it.”
Originally from Glasgow, former Merchant Navy man Alex started smoking at the age of 18 and went through around 20 cigarettes a day. He quit in 1976 and says he’ll never know whether cigarettes brought about his cancer.
Despite the illness, he doesn’t believe banning smoking in pubs will prevent people taking up the habit.
“Youngsters don’t listen to a word older people say. Youngsters today have so much freedom and so much going for them that they won’t be pushed around.
“The ban won’t stop them smoking. What are we going to have, the fag police going into pubs rounding up smokers and fining them?”
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Smoke ban officers to follow offenders home
February 19,2006
Jason Allardyce
TEAMS of council enforcers are to be given the power to trail people who flaunt the ban on smoking in public places, including following them to their cars and homes.
Critics fear the move raises the prospect of local authorities using the officers as revenue raisers to boost their coffers. Similar charges have been levelled against the armies of private traffic wardens, dubbed “the blue meanies”, who now patrol Scotland’s streets.
However, supporters insist the hardline policy is essential to protect people from the effects of passive smoking.
Official documents, obtained by The Sunday Times, reveal that the Scottish executive’s own advisers fear that the strategy could provoke violent confrontations between the enforcers and members of the public.
The guidance, drawn up by the Scottish executive, Crown Office, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, senior police officers and Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS), warns that enforcers should not try to impose the fines in busy pubs and nightclubs without police back-up “due to risks to the officers’ own health and safety from taking this action”.
Enforcers are advised to confront offenders only after checking with local police that they have officers on hand to help out if the situation gets out of control.
Under the legislation, which comes into force on March 26, anyone caught smoking in a pub, restaurant or other public place will be liable to a £50 on-the-spot fine. They will be obliged to provide their name and address.
Environmental health officers — who will police the legislation — have been told to follow anyone who refuses to provide the information back to their home or car.
“If the person to be served with a fixed-penalty notice seeks to leave, local authority officers may consider following that person (so far as is practicable and consistent with the officers’ own safety) to their home, car or other location where they can be identified,” the draft guidance states.
The initial focus of enforcement activity will be on pub, club and restaurant owners who turn a blind eye to the law and allow regulars to continue to smoke. However, officials, acting on tip-offs from members of the public who call a dedicated hotline, will also target smokers who continue to light up in spite of efforts by publicans to discourage them.
Confirming that the ban could lead to violence, the guidance adds: “In carrying out enforcement, officers should attempt to minimise confrontation. However, where a public order situation is developing and immediate help is required enforcement officers should contact the police for assistance.”
Critics have condemned the strategy, which they say could provoke unnecessary alarm among the public. “This smacks more of a police state than a liberal democracy,” said Brian Monteith, the independent MSP. “It also throws up the possibility of civil disobedience, with people leading officers on a merry dance for hours as they attempt to find out where they live. The potential for mayhem during the Edinburgh festival is of comic proportions.”
However, Keith McNamara, a member of the working group and former president of REHIS, said action had to be taken against anyone breaking the law. “It’s about not letting these people get away with it,” he said. “If you can identify the person and get the name and address out of them so much the better, if you have to follow them so much the better.
“You obviously wouldn’t follow some 18-stone burly geezer if you were going to antagonise him. The approach has to be a reasonably pragmatic one — you’re not going to put yourself in danger for the sake of a £50 fixed penalty notice.
“But if it’s reasonably identifiable that someone is going back to their car you could certainly get the registration number or else maybe go back to their home.”
McNamara admitted that officials had already expressed concerns over their safety but said they were well trained to handle difficult situations and would work closely with police.
The executive said: “Scottish people are generally law-biding and we do not expect any widespread public disorder.”
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NEWS RELEASE | Friday 24 March 2006
Personal freedom for Scots goes up in smoke
As Scotland prepares for the ban on smoking in pubs and clubs, opponents have lined up to condemn the "draconian" new law.
Neil Rafferty, Scottish spokesman for the smokers' lobby group FOREST, said: "Scotland will be a poorer place. Politicians and health campaigners have unprecedented power over our lives. The ban will do nothing to improve the health of the nation, but it will give a warm glow to those who enjoy telling others what to do.
"The anti-smoking fanatics will use the ban to victimise and stigmatise smokers even further. They have used abusive and dishonest methods to make smokers feel bad about themselves, even comparing smokers to heroin addicts.
"The Executive and anti-smoking lobbyists have misled the Scottish people. They have exaggerated the effects of passive smoking, hidden the true economic costs, and ignored the fundamental issues of freedom and choice. All along we advocated a policy which would have delivered genuine choice for smokers, non-smokers and bar workers and opinion polls showed that the majority of Scots agreed with us.
"It would be bad enough if the ban was being imposed by wise and responsible politicians, but this is the same bunch who spent £400 million on a parliament building that is now falling to bits.
In years to come this ban will be seen as one more step on the road to surrendering our personal freedom to politicians."
Meanwhile, pub owners are expressing fears over loss of business and potential conflict with smokers.
Leon Simms, owner of the Sutherland Arms Hotel in Brora, Sutherland, said: "It is the most stupid piece of legislation that Jack McConnell has ever conceived. No matter what the Executive says, there is going to be an economic impact. We have talked to brewers who say that trade is down all over Ireland since the ban came in to force there. I am quite happy for a smoking ban in places where food is served but not for a good old-fashioned boozer. My bar staff are sad about the ban as they think it will have an impact on the local and social aspects of the bar.
"Personal freedom is being taken away. The customer always has the choice. Nobody forces them to go into a pub and nobody forces staff to work there. I am expecting some conflict, so I'm not looking forward to Sunday."
Brian Monteith, independent MSP and the most staunch opponent of the ban in the Scottish Parliament, said: "The draconian nature of the total ban, where even some bus shelters are included, relies upon the public becoming snitches, while publicans will have to enforce the ban or face heavier fines than the smokers themselves. The law is divisive, illiberal and counterproductive as it shall only lead to more people smoking at home rather than in bars and cafes with other smokers."
Eleanor Quinn, an Edinburgh-based anti-ban campaigner, said: "The ban has little to do with the effects of passive smoking, which are disputed, and everything to do with the Scottish Parliament's desire to drive down the number of active smokers amongst the poorer working classes. To date, there is no evidence that a smoking ban will significantly drive down the number of smokers, or that lives will be saved as a result.
"Our European neighbours have largely opted for choice to accommodate both smokers and non-smokers in social settings. By imposing segregation instead of ventilation, and fear instead of understanding, the Scottish Parliament will further widen the health and social divide between rich and poor."
Belinda Cunnison, another anti-ban campaigner and non-smoker, said: "Lots of my friends are smokers and I want to go to a pub and socialise with them while they are smoking. Why should we be forced to change our social habits? It is quite wrong for the state to police people's social lives like this.
"The ban is completely unnecessary, especially in an age when we have the technical ability to achieve a comfortable environment for everyone, regardless of whether people smoke. I can't believe that we can send people to the moon but, according to the anti-smoking lobby, there is no ventilation system that can solve the problem of environmental tobacco smoke."
ends
The following opponents of the Scottish smoking ban, being introduced on Sunday 26 March, are available for interview:
Neil Rafferty
Scottish spokesman, Forest [smokers' lobby group]
Tel: 07733 301721
Simon Clark
Director, Forest [smokers' lobby group]
Tel: 07774 781840
The following do NOT represent Forest but are opposed to the smoking ban and are also available for interview:
Leon Simms, owner of the Sutherland Arms Hotel in Brora, Sutherland
Tel: 01408 622442
Brian Monteith MSP (independent)
Tel: 07715 378069
Eleanor Quinn
Edinburgh-based anti-ban campaigner
Tel: 07835 553615
Belinda Cunnison
Edinburgh-based anti-ban campaigner
Tel: 0131 467 4237 or 07766 966421
