Sly smokers spark more pub inspections

PLANS to scale down smoking inspectors are to be scrapped after new research suggested many pub customers are lighting up during lock-ins.

Health officials had hoped that the ban on smoking in pubs and clubs would become self-policing.

The study on the effectiveness of the ban – introduced in Scotland in March 2006 – was carried out by a team of academics from Stirling, Strathclyde and Central Lancashire universities. Over 18 months, they sent secret observers to eight pubs to check whether drinkers and staff were keeping to the law.

Three pubs were in deprived urban areas, three were in affluent urban areas and two were in poorly-off rural areas.

The study found:

&149 Lock-ins for smokers going on in both the rural pubs and in one of the deprived urban bars;

&149 One of the rural bars allowing smoking after early closing;

&149 One of the rural pubs, and one each of the other categories of allowed smoking before the official opening time;

• Staff smoking in a rural bar and a deprived urban one.

The study also found a case of a bar allowing older customers to light up in a cellar when it was raining.

But it showed that the smoking ban was enforced during peak hours when managers feared being caught out.

Douglas Eadie, of the Centre for Tobacco Control Research at Stirling University, led the study. He said: "This does make clear that there is a small proportion of premises which are allowing their locals to smoke."

Sally Haw, of NHS Health Scotland, said: "In the immediate aftermath of the smoking ban there were a large number of inspections, and that has been scaled down somewhat to a lower frequency as people have become used to the change in the law. It was hoped that it would become effectively self-policing and inspections might not be needed. But it's clear from this that we need to maintain inspections at their current level."

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said the authority had no plans to scale back enforcement of smoke-free premises, which was felt to have "an important role in the successful implementation of the legislation".

Gordon Greenhill, head of community safety at Edinburgh City Council, said: "Breaches are few and far between due to the overwhelming support for the legislation in the city. However, we continue to remain vigilant and anyone suspecting a possible breach is urged to contact us."

Neil Rafferty, the spokesman for smokers' lobby group Forest, said: "The fact that there are lock-ins just shows how stupid and unfair this law is. If people are locking the doors to have a smoke then they are exercising freedom of will.

"People know the dangers of smoking and should be left to choose for themselves."

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "Although it is disappointing that there were some instances of non-compliance with the smoking ban in this particular study, we are very pleased that levels of compliance remain very high throughout Scotland."

A spokeswoman for the Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities said: "Councils are determined to ensure that the anti-smoking legislation is appropriately enforced."