‘Radical Welsh Law’ Banning Smoking in Hospital Grounds and Public Playgrounds Passed by AMs

New rules including a ban on smoking in hospital grounds and in public playgrounds in Wales were approved by Assembly Members this afternoon.

Described as a ‘radical piece of legislation’, the Public Health Bill aims to ‘create the conditions which enable people to live healthy lives and will protect them from preventable harm’.

The Bill, which was backed unanimously by AMs’, includes a ban for smoking in school grounds, public playgrounds, and the outdoor areas of registered childcare settings. Smoking will also be banned in hospital grounds.

It also prohibits tobacco and nicotine products from being handed over to under 18s by home delivery or collection services and creates a national register of retailers of tobacco and nicotine products.

Welsh Government say it will also protect health and wellbeing through:

– Creating a mandatory licensing scheme for ‘special procedures’, namely acupuncture, body piercing, electrolysis and tattooing, and prohibiting the intimate piercing of anybody under the age of 18.

– Placing a duty on local authorities to prepare and publish a local toilets strategy, including an assessment of the need for toilets for public use and details of how that need will be met.

– Requiring public bodies in Wales to assess how their decisions will affect people’s physical and mental health.

– Making the planning of pharmacy services more responsive to the needs of their local community.

– Placing a duty on the Welsh Government to produce a national strategy on preventing and reducing obesity.