Written question asked by David Drew (Labour) on Tuesday, 31 October 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 2 November 2006. It was answered by Caroline Flint (Labour) on Wednesday, 8 November 2006 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Passive Smoking (Cars)

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the impact of passive smoking from travelling regularly in a car with someone who smokes; and if she will seek to legislate to ban smoking in cars.

Answer: The evidence on the health effects of secondhand smoke was published by the Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health (SCOTH) in their report in 1998.SCOTH published a second report on this subject in November 2004 entitled ““Secondhand Smoke: Review of evidence since 1998””, which concluded that the evidence published since 1998 ““confirms that secondhand smoke represents a substantial public health hazard””. This conclusion is confirmed by the authoritative review conducted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).These reports are available in the Library.The Health Act 2006 makes provision for vehicles to be smokefree. A full public consultation on proposed regulations was completed on 9 October and we are considering responses. The proposals we have put forward treat vehicles in effectively the same way as other enclosed public places and workplaces. That is, if a vehicle is a public place or a workplace for more than one person, it will be required to be smokefree as set out in the regulations. As with buildings, it is not our intention to legislate in purely private spaces; so private family cars, for example, will not be caught—and neither will private family homes.

Secondary information