Smokers to cough up as new fines kick in
Smokers will face a £50 fine from tomorrow if they are caught lighting up in the car and have children as passengers – amid concerns it will place an additional burden on the police.
The ban across England follows a similar one brought into force in Wales following experts' warnings of the dangers of second hand smoke.
She says: "I realise that there are concerns over the practicalities of enforcing this.
"But I hope that the very fact this law exists will encourage people to think about their actions and the effects they can have on others, particularly children.
"We need to help people to understand the impact of second hand smoke.
"And we recognise that this is an addiction and we need to show people there is support for them if they want to give up. This legislation is in line with a trend emerging in other countries around the world. It's a difficult balance because we do not want to dictate how people live their lives.
"But this is about children and young people as much as about the smoker.
"Yes it is an addiction, but it is also someone's choice to smoke.
From October 1 it will be an offence for a person of any age to smoke in a vehicle that is carrying someone who is under 18 years old. And it will be up to the driver to stop any passenger smoking in these circumstances.
Both the driver and the smoker would be fined.
The law does not apply however if the driver is 17 years old and is on their own in the car. Figures from the Lung Foundation show that around 185,000 children between the ages of 11-15 in England are exposed to potentially toxic concentrations of second-hand smoke in their family's car every day or most days.
It is the equivalent of more than 6,100 classrooms full of children.
Councils and the police will both have the power to enforce the law and hand out fixed penalty notices.
Tom Cuddeford, deputy chairman of the West Midlands Police Federation, said: "From a health point of view it has all the best intentions.
Simon Clark, of smoking group Forest, said: "It is pointless and unnecessary.
"The overwhelming majority of smokers know it is inconsiderate to smoke in a car with a child in the back and don't do it.
"For the police it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack
" How are they supposed to tell whether someone is smoking in a car travelling at 30, 40 or 50mph and whether there is a child in there?
"There is also a concern that this is the start of something bigger.
"For the first time, we have a law that bans smoking in a private space.
"The anti-smoking campaigners will come back and press for the law to apply in all private vehicles, regardless of whether there are children present.
"Then they will press for the law to apply in the home.
"For officers it is a new law coming in, which means an additional duty. Police officers are already dealing with a large workload and pressures on a daily basis.
"It's another thing to keep an eye out for. It's going to need officers to be able to identify an offender going at 30mph or 40mph while going from job to job to job.
"The highest priority for officers will always be protecting the public from injury and responding to crimes in progress and the question is where this will fall in that scale."
National Police Chiefs' Council spokeswoman Lucy Hall said: "As the existing smokefree law extends to vehicles, police forces will be following guidance from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health by taking an educational, advisory and non-confrontational approach when enforcing the new legislation."
