Smoking in Private Vehicles Carrying Children

Tuesday 15th July 2014 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Jane Ellison)]

The Government have today published “Smoking in private vehicles carrying children—consultation on proposed regulations to be made under the Children and Families Act 2014”.

Parliament has voted in favour of legislation that gives Ministers powers to bring forward regulations to make private vehicles carrying children smoke-free. The Government are proceeding with the introduction of regulations and are seeking views on draft regulations before they are made.

Under the proposed regulations, existing smoke-free legislation as set out in the Health Act 2006 will be extended, so that it would be an offence to:

smoke in a private vehicle with someone under age 18 present; and

fail to prevent smoking in a private vehicle with someone under age 18 present.

The proposed regulations will not apply to anyone driving alone in a private vehicle.

Exposure to second-hand smoke is a serious health hazard, especially to children. Every time someone breathes in second-hand smoke, they breathe in over 4,000 chemicals. Many are highly toxic and more than 50 are known to cause cancer. The only way to provide effective protection is to prevent people breathing in second-hand smoke in the first place. The World Health Organisation found that second-hand smoke is a real and substantial threat to child health, causing a variety of adverse health effects including increased susceptibility to lower respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis, worsening of asthma, middle ear disease, and decreased lung function. Children from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds are generally more heavily exposed to second-hand smoke than other children.

The consultation will run for six weeks until 27 August 2014. I would encourage all those with an interest to give their views on the draft regulations that would prohibit smoking in private vehicles carrying children.

Smoke-free legislation is a devolved matter and these regulations would apply to England only. The regulation-making powers allow for Welsh Ministers to introduce regulations and we are liaising with the Welsh Government to co-ordinate our approaches.

“Smoking in private vehicles carrying children—consultation on proposed regulations to be made under the Children and Families Act 2014” has been placed in the Library. Copies are available to Members of the House of Commons from the Vote Office and the House of Lords from the Printed Paper Office.