No Smoking Policy
The Council introduced its No Smoking Policy to meet the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005. It banned the smoking of tobacco and tobacco related products in public places from 26 March 2006: with effect from that date, all council offices, council vehicles and wholly/substantially enclosed premises became No Smoking areas.
Although the Act would have been impact assessed at source, the Council wished to assessed what possible impacts there could be in the implementation of its policy.
The assessment identified:
The Policy as a whole has a positive impact on health and wellbeing, with many pieces of public health research pointing to the benefits of not smoking, and the benefits for non-smokers not being affected by second hand smoke.
One of the key potential impacts is in the different ways in which women and men access health services, and men may not access the smoking cessation support services in comparison to women.
Men are known to be less likely to access health services, and it is anticipated that fewer will access the smoking cessation services on offer. There are possible implications for women with caring responsibilities accessing support services.
Support services will be provided to both sexes together, but in order to highlight any negative impacts, evidence will be gathered to identify if there are men taking up support. There is also a need to look at different learning and support styles for individuals, and between women and men.
