Our policy on smokefree legislation
Almost all enclosed workplaces and public places in the UK are smokefree. This measure protects people, including workers, from the very serious health dangers of secondhand smoke exposure and also helps some smokers to quit.
Implementation dates:
- Scotland 26th March 2006
- Wales 2nd April 2007
- Northern Ireland 30th April 2007
- England 1st July 2007
Although the laws vary slightly between these nations, the vast majority of places that are 50% or more enclosed are included, such as restaurants, pubs, factories, hospitals, shopping centres, areas in homes used for work purposes and work vehicles.
The introduction of smokefree legislation has been popular and has effectively removed secondhand smoke from virtually all enclosed work and public places. The legislation has also achieved high rates of compliance and in England, has motivated around an additional 300,000 successful quit attempts. This suggests that the law will prevent up to 40,000 premature deaths over the next 10 years in England.
Despite the progress that has been made since the introduction of the legislation, many people are still exposed to secondhand smoke in the home and in private cars.
Cancer Research UK welcomes the Government’s commitment to review the legislation in 2010 to make it even more effective and to seek further ways to protect children and those from vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.
Cancer Research UK’s employees and supporters campaigned tirelessly for the introduction of the new smokefree laws. We also ran various mass media campaigns to support the introduction of the laws.
Our mass media campaign in England was funded by the Department of Health. The photographs of the English countryside represent how much fresher and cleaner indoor environments now are . We also developed online and radio adverts.
See and listen to the adverts online
View our print adverts as Adobe PDFs
Listen to our radio adverts in mp3 format:
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