Northern Ireland: Smoking in Public Places

HL Deb 18 January 2005 vol 668 c98WA

Lord Laird

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What plans they have to ban smoking in places of entertainment and in places where food is prepared or consumed in Northern Ireland. [HL648]

Baroness Amos

On 21 December 2004, the Government announced their consultation on the options for strengthening existing controls on tobacco use in Northern Ireland. The options, which were set out in the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety's new Regional Strategy,A Healthier Future: A Twenty Year Vision for Health and Wellbeing in Northern Ireland, are: to encourage greater adoption of smoke-free provision in public places and in workplaces through self-regulation;

prohibit smoking in most enclosed public places and workplaces, while still allowing smoking in some pubs and bars, other than those preparing and serving food; or

to ban smoking in all enclosed public places and workplaces.

Comments on the regional strategy, a copy of which has been placed in the House Library, have been invited by 25 March 2005.