§ Mr. Brothertonasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will explain the nature of his Department's campaign to discourage smoking among his civilian staff; whether there will be any expenditure of public funds in this campaign; and whether he has any plans to extend it to service personnel.
§ Mr. Ian StewartThe Government aim, in the light of the medical evidence of the damage to health that can be caused by smoking(a) to discourage non-smokers from getting into the habit of smoking; (b) to persuade smokers to give up, cut down, or switch to less dangerous brands; (c) to make cigarettes themselves less damaging to health; (d) to create a non-smoking environment (with facilities for smokers) rather than vice versa.
The Ministry of Defence campaign for applying this policy to its civilian staff is described in a Civilian Defence Council instruction, and is based on suitable posters (as used by the Health Education Council); office notices; the prohibition, with the agreement of staff and trade union sides, of smoking in recreational areas, staff restaurants and other rest areas, and the setting aside of separate smoking areas where desired and possible; where this can be achieved without significant additional cost, accommodation or manpower, and with no loss of efficiency, the sympathetic consideration of any proposal for segregating smokers and non-smokers; discouraging smoking at conferences, meetings, training courses or other gatherings where non-smokers might be put to discomfort.
Posters, notices and signs are made available through public funds. Whilst it is recognised that there can be no general ban on smoking on government premises either for the public or government employees, there may be practical difficulties imposed by cost constraints and accommodation standards in segregating smokers and non-smokers.
Regarding service personnel, the Army has had a ten-year health education campaign, including anti-smoking, aimed principally at junior soldiers, and based on lectures, posters and notices, and a follow up programme. Similarly the Royal navy anti-smoking campaign is based on lectures to recruits, further lectures by medical staff in Her Majesty's ships and Fleet establishments, posters, leaflets 64W and follow up surveys. The Royal Air Force has a similar programme of health educational lectures, posters and surveys.