A prisoner who wanted smoking banned in jail because he feared the impact of secondhand smoke on his health has lost his case.
See BBC News – Inmate loses jail smoking ban fight at Supreme Court.
The 2006 Health Act did of course allow exemptions and they included, in particular, "any premises where a person has his home, or is living whether permanently or temporarily (including hotels, care homes, and prisons and other places where a person may be detained).
The exemptions for prisons could not have been any clearer and it's a mystery how Black won the original case in 2015.
Nevertheless, listening to his lawyer on Five Live this morning it was interesting to hear him say his client never wanted smoking banned in other inmates' cells, nor did he want smoking prohibited in outdoor areas.
The goal, according to the lawyer, was merely to have smoking banned in communal areas indoors.
How ironic therefore that after successfully challenging Black's 2015 High Court victory in the Appeal Court on the grounds that a "particularly vigorous" ban could cause discipline problems and risk the safety of staff and inmates, the government ignored its own warning and is currently introducing a prison smoking policy that is far more draconian than Black ever intended.
How hypocritical is that?
Another issue the Supreme Court ruling raises is this: if exposure to 'secondhand' smoke is as dangerous to non-smokers as current anti-smoking orthodoxy would have us believe, it begs the question why any court (Supreme or otherwise) would not uphold an indoor smoking ban.
And yet, by dismissing Black's case following his defeat in the Court of Appeal last year, it would seem that both the Appeal and Supreme Court judges have indeed rejected the fallacy that even regular exposure to other people's tobacco smoke is a serious risk to the health of non-smokers.
Final point. The lawyer representing Paul Black works for Leigh Day, the controversial 'personal injury and medical negligence lawyers'.
By coincidence this is the same firm that has represented ASH (Leigh Day acting for ASH in High Court tobacco plain packaging case).
Fancy that.