UK Offence Report

No-smoking notices – hospital grounds: manner of display, form and content

regulation 2(2) of The Prohibition of Smoking Outside Hospital Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2022

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

2 The notice must— a be a minimum size of 1 metre by 1 metre, b display the international “no smoking” symbol consisting of a graphic description of a burning cigarette enclosed in a red circle with a red bar across it, at least 200 millimetres in diameter, c in clear font no smaller than 254 millimetres state— It is an offence to smoke or knowingly permit smoking in the no-smoking area outside a hospital building.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (knowingly).

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: knowingly.

What would breach regulation 2(2)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. On these words it is an offence to smoke or knowingly permit smoking in the no-smoking area outside a hospital building.
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Prohibition of Smoking Outside Hospital Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2022.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
27 April 2022
In force from
5 September 2022
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations establish no-smoking areas outside of hospital buildings and make provision further to sections 4A to 4D of the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005(“the Act”). Section 4D(1) of the Act provides that the “no-smoking area outside a hospital building” is the area lying immediately outside the hospital building, and bounded by a perimeter the specified distance from the building, but only insofar as the area forms part of hospital grounds. These Regulations set the specified distance of the perimeter as 15 metres. Regulation 2 sets out the requirements for no-smoking notices which, by virtue of section 4C(1) of the Act, must be conspicuously displayed at every entrance to hospital grounds. The requirement under section 4C(1) does not apply to entrances to hospital grounds determined in accordance with regulation 5. Regulation 3 sets out the requirements for no-smoking notices which, by virtue of section 4C(2) of the Act, the person having the management and control of a hospital building must conspicuously display at every entrance to the building. Under section 4C(5) of the Act, the person having the management and control of a hospital building commits an offence if they fail to conspicuously display no-smoking notices at every entrance to the building, or fail to do so in accordance with the requirements in regulation 3. Regulation 4 specifies the perimeter of the no-smoking areas as 15 metres, to be measured on a horizontal plane from the building walls. Where a hospital building has any awning, canopy, porch or other overhanging structure attached to it, all of the land lying directly beneath that awning, canopy, porch or other overhanging structure forms part of the no-smoking area. Regulation 5 modifies the definition of “hospital grounds” in section 4D(3) of the Act. It provides that where the entrance to a hospital building opens directly onto a public footway, footpath or cycle track (“a path”) which would not otherwise form part of hospital grounds, that path and any connected paths are to form part of the hospital grounds. The path ceases to form part of the hospital grounds beyond 15 metres measured from the centre of the entrance or where it meets land which is not a path. Regulation 6 specifies by exception buildings that are not to be considered “hospital buildings” for the purposes of Part 1 of the Act. Regulation 7 provides that an area of land that is accessed from a hospital building and is a designated smoking area with fixed boundaries does not form part of a no-smoking area. This derogation expires after one year of the Regulations being in force by virtue of regulation 1. Regulation 8 amends regulation 4 of the Prohibition of Smoking in Certain Premises (Scotland) Regulations 2006 to prescribe the amount of the fixed penalty prescribed under paragraph 4(1) of schedule 1 of the Act and the discounted amount prescribed under paragraph 5(2) of schedule 1 of the Act for offences under sections 4A, 4B and 4C(5) of the Act. Impact assessments have been carried out and can be found atwww.gov.scot. It is an offence under section 4A of the Act for a person with management and control of a no-smoking area to knowingly permit smoking in that area. It is an offence under section 4B of the Act for a person to smoke in a no-smoking area.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source