Smoking ban planned for Hertfordshire County Council sites from January

Currently employees of Hertfordshire County Council are allowed to smoke in designated outside areas, on site.

But a new ‘smokefree’ policy would mean employees – as well as visitors, volunteers and contractors – would no longer be able to smoke on the premises of any county council ‘workplace’.

As part of the policy, staff would also be banned from smoking in council vehicles and from nipping out to their own cars – if parked on a county council car park – for a smoke.

They would even be told not to smoke whilst working from home, if they were representing the county council on a videoconference.

And anyone who did go off site to smoke during the working day would be told to remove their county council ID badges and cover up their uniform.

Vaping will be allowed but only in a few designated areas and only during unpaid break times.

On Thursday, September 10, the plans were endorsed by a meeting of the county council’s public health and prevention cabinet panel.

And if the proposals are backed by a meeting of the cabinet later this month, they will come into force from January 1 (2021).

According to the report to the cabinet panel, there are an estimated 110,000 smokers in the county, amounting to 12 per cent of the population.

And smoking, it says, is the leading cause of premature death in Hertfordshire, as well as the largest cause of chronic disease.

Council care homes and other residential facilities – deemed to be people’s homes – would be exempt from the ban.

And there would also be exceptions made in circumstances where going off site would be dangerous for particular service users – or for those on extended shifts who are not permitted to leave he premises.

In drawing-up the policy council officials conducted a ‘smokefree staff survey’, that was completed by 510 staff members. Of those 67 were current smokers and 128 were former smokers.

According to the survey, 73 per cent of smokers said they would find it difficult not to smoke during the day and 23 per cent said that it would be difficult to go off-site.

Current smokers suggested the change in policy would be “unfair” on them, pointing to colleagues who took breaks drinks, or phone calls or just to chat and who were not expected to make up the time.

Some said they used their smoking breaks as a VDU break or that they started work early, finished late or skipped lunch to accommodate smoking breaks.

Twenty of the smokers said they would like to quit and 17 said they would not.

According to the report, to implement the ‘smokefree’ policy the council will promote ‘Stoptober’ and New Year quit campaigns and provide free stop smoking services.

It will also provide free medication to help staff stop smoking up to three months after the start of the policy, as well as advice and support for those who want to continue.

At the meeting of the cabinet panel, executive member for public health and prevention Cllr Tim Hutchings said: “There has been a thorough consultation and I think the measures that you are putting in place to introduce it, to support staff that need that support are to be commended.”