When did the UK smoking ban come in for pubs, prisons and stations and are the rules different in England and Scotland?

IT’S been over a decade since the smoking ban came into force in England and Wales.

But what’s the deal with smoking in prisons and is Scotland any different? We’ve got the lowdown…

When did the UK smoking ban come in for pubs and stations?

It was announced on November 30, 2006 that England and Wales would ban smoking indoors in a move that was heralded as “a huge step forward for public health”.

The ban made it illegal to smoke in all enclosed work places in England.

It came into force on July 1, 2007.

There were a few exceptions to the law, including:

• designated hotel rooms
• designated rooms in nursing homes
• designated rooms in prisons
• designated rooms in offshore oil rigs
• specialist tobacconists in relation to sampling cigars and/or pipe tobacco.

Can you still smoke in prisons?

While it is currently not against the law for inmates to smoke in designated areas, more and more prisons are outlawing the habit.

Prisons are slowly transitioning to “smoke free” initially by stopping selling cigarette from their shop.

Smoking is then completely banned with nicotine patches and other substitutes offered to smokers.

Earlier in 2017 an independent probe blamed the cig ban for “eruptions of violence” among irritable lags.

The Prison Service said: “If staff find prisoners smoking any substance, the item will be immediately confiscated and the offender will face additional punishment.”

Are the rules different in England and Scotland?

Smoking indoors is also banned in Scotland but those savvy Scots were a few steps ahead of their English cousins.The smoking ban came into place more than a year earlier north of the boarder on March 26, 2006.As with in England, there were a few exceptions including care homes and police interview rooms.