No workplace smoking ban yet, John Reid suggests
Proposals for a ban on smoking in the workplace are unlikely to be included by the Government in its forthcoming White Paper on public health, comments from the Secretary of State for Health suggest.
John Reid outlined his personal philosophy for health services at a meeting
last week organised by two think-tanks, the New Health Network and the
New Local Government Network. Dr Reid said public services need to be
redesigned so that they unlock people’s motivation and are targeted
at specific individuals’ needs. “Government needs to get
the state off people’s backs and put it beneath people’s
feet,” he said. “If your only policies are ones where you
tell people what to do, you will achieve little.”
In response to a question on whether introducing a ban on workplace smoking
would help people quit their habit, Dr Reid replied that the issue of
a ban had to be balanced against democratic freedoms and individual responsibilities.
He said the Government was doing a lot to help smokers quit, both by
providing smoking cessation services and through higher taxes on cigarettes
and restrictions on advertising. Dr Reid said that he had doubled the
target for the number of quitters and had told officials that he did
not want to see this achieved merely by getting more middle-class people
to stop smoking. However, he added that he had not yet decided what to
do about introducing a ban. “The line I take is to empower and
enable people, but you have to go further in some cases.”
After the meeting, one of the invited participants Jonathan Buisson,
NHS strategy manager at Moss Pharmacy, told The Journal: “Dr Reid’s
answer was less firm than the expressions being made by politicians in
Scotland. Public opinion appears to be hardening on this issue, in the
light of the successful bans in New York, Ireland and Norway. The Government
could be in danger of getting out of step with voters.” Mr Buisson
added that the new pharmacy contracts will give more pharmacists a way
to
introduce structured and cost-effective smoking cessation services, in
line with primary care targets.
The White Paper is likely to be published at the Labour Party conference
next week or shortly afterwards. |
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