A radical plan to ban e-cigarettes from all enclosed public spaces and workplaces has been ditched by the Welsh government.
Instead of a wide-ranging prohibition of vaping, the government will now attempt to introduce a law banning e-cigarettes from specific places. The Welsh health minister, Mark Drakeford, said: “Basically, we have changed our proposals so that a ban on e-cigarettes would be put in place in areas where there is a potential risk to children; this will include schools, eating places and on public transport.”
In the summer the Labour-led administration announced it wanted to ban e-cigarettes from public places because it feared they could normalise smoking and act as a “gateway to tobacco”.
During a debate at the Welsh assembly on the general principles in the public health (Wales) bill – which features the e-cigarette proposals – Drakeford said the evidence remained contested.
He pointed out that experts had told the assembly’s health and social care committee that e-cigarettes carried a credible risk of harm. Drakeford said: “I am not prepared, and I do not believe this assembly should be prepared, to do nothing in the hope that harm might not occur.”
But he said amendments would be made to the bill defining which enclosed and substantially enclosed spaces would be subject to any ban.
The move can be seen either as an embarrassing climbdown following a high-profile launch or as showing Drakeford’s willingness to listen to critics and experts.
Before Tuesday’s debate, 12 experts from universities and the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training wrote to assembly members claiming there was no evidence to justify the legislation.
The leader of the Liberal Democrats in Wales, Kirsty Williams, had said her party harboured strong objections to the restrictions.
She said: “For a bill that claims to address public health, some of Wales’s biggest health concerns – obesity, diabetes, air quality, heart disease – don’t even get a mention. Labour’s poverty of ambition for the health of our nation is shocking.
“The truth is that as it’s currently drafted, this bill won’t improve public health. If anything, it will have exactly the opposite effect thanks to Labour’s ill-thought out vaping ban. Welsh Liberal Democrats will not support any bill that includes this ban.”
The Welsh Conservative spokesman on health, Darren Millar, said: “Introducing this ban would be a huge step backwards for smoking cessation and efforts to improve public health.
“Labour ministers are misguided in their war on e-cigarettes. There is no evidence supporting their plans and they should be ditched. We should be giving people a helping hand to quit smoking – not placing obstacles in their way.”
