Economic cost of enforcing the smoking ban
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 
Before parliament introduced the public smoking ban, Forest ran a two-year campaign entitled "Fight the ban: fight for choice". The campaign included a series of advertisements, including the one above, that appeared in political titles such as The Spectator, The Week and the New Statesman.
I was interested therefore to read the following report which appeared last week:
"A smoke enforcement chief on £44,000-a-year failed to convict or warn anyone in an entire year. Council bosses backed him up with a smoking co-ordinator officer on £38,000-a-year and two part-time assistants to crack down on people illegally smoking in public or the workplace. But even though an estimated 62,000 of the 270,000 adults in Croydon, South London, smoke, the council hit squad failed to nail anyone."
Story HERE.
The report adds that "It is believed the officers are no longer employed in an anti-smoking role." Nevertheless, I wonder how many times this story could be repeated up and down the country and how much public money has been spent on "smoke enforcement officers" since the introduction of the smoking ban.
By coincidence, I have just been sent a copy of letter from the principal environmental health officer at one local council. It reads:
Further to your letter requesting information on money spent by St Helens Council on the implementation of the Health Act 2008 which came into place on July 1st 2007, I have outlined below some budget details relating to this area of work.
The Department of Health provided a lump sum grant to the Council totalling £102,058 in 2007. The money was used to implement the lead up and enforcement of the legislation within St Helens. The majority of the grant was spent on the employment of two smoke free technical officers on an 18 month contract. Their responsibilities included co-ordinating the lead up to July 1st, communicating with businesses, visiting businesses to monitor compliance from July 1st with the legislation and investigating complaints received.
To answer the specific questions in your letter:
The cost of smoking ban materials such as stickers/leaflets/posters - the majority of these materials were provided free of charge to local authorities by Smoke Free England (part of the NHS). Additional internal printing for legal documents and local promotional materials costs £2,840 (part of the Department of Health grant).
Costs of legal actions and or warnings issued to landlords/publicans/club owners; there has been no legal action against any businesses or individuals in relation to the Health Act. One fixed penalty notice has been served and 98 warning letters sent, to date. The estimated cost of this activity is £1,710.
The approximate cost of money to council staff which was linked to the implementation of this new legislation is £88,398 which relates to the two smoke free officers (which came from the Department of Health grant). Other council staff involvement to date is estimated at £2,908.
The cost of the smoking ban seems to grow by the day. My correspondent suggests that if people from all over the UK send a Freedom of Information request to their local council "we could get a lot more info about how much was spent (and is being spent)".
Over to you. Please send a copy of your letter (and the reply) to Forest.
Meanwhile I like the reference to the majority of materials being provided "free of charge to local authorities by Smoke Free England". Free of charge to local authorities, perhaps, but not free of charge to the taxpayer.
I sense another FoI request coming on ...
Reader Comments (2)
Hi Simon,
Not directly attributable to enforcing the smoking ban but some very interesting facts from Scotland.
Table 3.1: Funding for smoking cessation services by Health Board: 2008/09
Health Board Allocation
Ayrshire & Arran £542,000
Borders £170,000
Dumfries&Galloway £231,000
Fife £462,000
Forth Valley £373,000
Grampian £597,000
Greater Glasgow £2,569,000
Highland £455,000
Lanarkshire £1,147,000
Lothian £1,311,000
Orkney £53,000
Shetland £59,000
Tayside £949,000
Western Isles £82,000
Source:- Scottish Government Press Release : Helping Smokers kick the habit, 11 December 2007.
And also;-
3.30 Planned expenditure on health improvement set out in the Scottish Budget Spending Review 2007 document shows an annual amount of £13.8 million for tobacco control in 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11. 37http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/08/28155352/7
Hey, he might be one of us!
Each of us should seek to gain such employment, so as to subvert the system. Hell, it's worked for the Fabians so far - why don't we employ their methods?