Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Angry
I can assure you these are not "show proceedings" and they have far greater implications than those which are only immediately apparent to people through articles 1 & 8.
By way of example - when does ones house become someone else's workplace and how is liability / culpability affected?
You see, the Government in it's infinite wisdom (and in the guise of protecting everyones health) has effectively shot itself in the foot whereby it has not delineated either of the above for the purposes of passing into legislation.
In effect a healthcare worker, social worker, benefits advisor, locum GP etc etc etc cannot, by law, call to an address where habitual smoking takes place as that environment, for the purposes of the duration of their visit, is their place of work.
Not the sharpest tools in the box - some MPs.
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The Act doesn't cover people who visit other peoples houses as part of their employment so people won't be criminalised for smoking at home.
Having said that, we've had H&S at work legislation for ages now. If someone has to visit a smokers house for a long period (ie long enough to present a risk to health) then that would already be caught by existing legislation.
Companies already have the right to ask people not to smoke if one of their staff is about to visit in the sense that they can simply decline to provide the service otherwise.
Not sure how it works with public bodies which have statutory obligations to provide services but we don't seem to have an epidemic of elderly chavs dying because social services refused to send someone round because their house was full of smoke. And nothing's changed with the new act.