Smoking in cars carrying children will soon be banned in the UK after MPs backed the proposal in a free vote. The House of Commons supported the plan, despite reserves from some cabinet members over the difficulty to enforce such a measure.
Under the proposal, government will have powers to introduce a new offence of exposing children to smoke in vehicles, with breaches of the law likely to incur a small fine. British Prime Minister David Cameron backed the idea, despite the government’s view that there was no need for the legislation.
According to the shadow public health minister, Luciana Berger, the vote is “great victory for child health which will benefit hundreds of thousands of young people.” She added that it is “a matter of child protection, not adult choice.”
Some MPs expressed views that the ban may be against civil liberties and feared it would be unenforceable. However, the vote was clearly in favor of the ban: 376 vs. 107.
If the ban will go through, the UK will follow the example set by Australia, Canada and some U.S. states, where smoking in cars with children is against the law.
The British government said it would seek to implement the ban before an election in May next year. “The intention is for the secondary regulations to be in force ahead of May 2015. There is a particular issue around vehicles being a particularly confined space and the associated public health concerns,” Prime Minister David Cameron’s official spokesman was quoted as saying by Reuters.
By Dan Mihalascu