Why legislate to ban smoking?
The Scottish Voluntary Charter on Smoking in Public Places was launched by the Scottish Executive in May 2000. Although this did meet a number of objectives, various organisations, incl. ASH Scotland, continued to campaign to have legislation introduced to offer the public the minimum protection from exposure to second-hand smoke. In January 2004, the Scottish Executive published its tobacco control action plan, “A Breath of Fresh Air for Scotland: Improving Scotland’s Health – the Challenge”. The plan set out a range of measures to strengthen tobacco control, including prevention work, education and communications, controls on sales and the expansion of cessation services. The plan also looked at the possibility of imposing greater controls on smoking in the face of the growing body of evidence that more restrictions would result in a significant improvement to the nation’s health. In 2004, The Scottish Executive carried out an extensive programme of evidence gathering and public cons
