The Scottish Parliament's Health and Sport Committee has published its report on the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Bill.
You may recall that in September I was invited to give oral evidence to the committee and I took the opportunity to complain bitterly about the proposal to bring in a law that makes it an offence to smoke on hospital grounds.
My comments were widely reported by BBC Scotland and the rest of the Scottish media including the Herald which quoted me at length.
The bad news is that the Committee has, as expected, endorsed the proposal to make it an offence to smoke in NHS hospital grounds.
The 'good' news, if I can call it that, is that the Committee appears to agree with Forest (and a "number of other organisations") that a comprehensive ban is a step too far:
According to the Committee:
Forest considered it totally wrong to ban smoking in all hospital grounds calling it inhumane” especially for visitors, staff and patients who may be experiencing stressful situations. Forest also highlighted safety concerns for staff and others who would have to leave NHS premises in order to smoke.
Forest called for the decision on where to restrict smoking to be left to the Chief Executive of each hospital rather than a one-size-fits all" approach imposed from central Government. A number of other organisations also argued that it should be left to each health board to decide the extent and boundaries of the non-smoking area designated under the Bill.
So instead of a ban on smoking across entire NHS sites, the Committee appears to believe it should be an offence to smoke only within certain areas.
Whether the Scottish Government will allow even this small concession remains to be seen. No doubt ASH Scotland and others will be lobbying ministers not to give an inch, but we'll see.
We will of course continue to press our own case. Sadly we won't be getting any help from the ex-smoking vaping community.
Invited to express an opinion on hospital smoking bans, their representative told the Committee, "I would rather not talk about tobacco, to be honest."
Priceless.
See Stage 1 Report on Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Bill.
PS. Re the 100 yard comment erroneously attributed to me, here's my original explanation, which is worth repeating:
One thing I must correct is a remark attributed to me by the Press Association and repeated in several newspapers.
According to the PA I suggested "designated shelters or a 100-yard no-smoking zone would be more appropriate" than a total smoking ban.
That's not quite right. The 100-yard figure was [MSP] Richard Lyle's idea. I accepted there was a case for banning smoking around hospital entrances but I would never support a 100-yard exclusion zone around hospital buildings.
As I recall I specifically declined to put any distance on an exclusion zone. Instead I said there should be no 'one-size fits all' approach because hospital grounds vary enormously in size and it should be up to the hospital administrators, not central government, to decide on the exact policy.
As we've read today, the Health and Sport Committee seem to agree with me.