SMOKING (PROHIBITION IN CERTAIN PLACES) BILL

Order for Second Reading read. 1.31 pm

The Minister for the Environment (Dr Ahmad Mattar): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

Sir, with the enactment of the Smoking (Prohibition in Certain Places) Act (Cap. 310) in 1970, public buses on scheduled routes and several public places were specified as places where smoking was prohibited. The prohibition protects non-smokers who are the majority population against the health hazards of environmental tobacco smoke and passive smoking.

Under the Bill which seeks to repeal and reenact the Smoking (Prohibition in Certain Places) Act, the Minister may prohibit smoking in all public service vehicles such as taxis and buses, hired or chartered to transport school children and office or factory workers. It will also be an offence if a manager of a specified building or an operator of a specified vehicle fails to ask a person found smoking within the specified premises or vehicle to stop smoking immediately, or to ask that person to leave if the person continues to smoke. The manager or operator is also duty bound to seek the assistance of a police officer or a public health officer if the smoker refuses to leave the premises or vehicle. The maximum penalty for an offence under the Act will be raised from $500 to $1,000.

Sir, the Bill presented before Parliament seeks to enable the Government to provide further protection to non-smokers.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question proposed.

Dr John Chen Seow Phun (Hong Kah GRC): Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to express my support for the Bill governing the prohibition of smoking in certain places.

The primary objective of this legislation is to protect the health of non-smokers. In this regard, would the Minister tell us how many people have been caught violating the existing smoking prohibition, say, for the past five years, where these offences were committed, how they were caught and whether the Ministry had to step up its level of enforcement over the same period? The answers to these questions would help us assess the effectiveness of the legislation and thereby help us to improve it.

One of the important amendments in this Bill before us is to impose a duty on a manager of a specified place or an operator of a specified public service vehicle to help in enforcing the law. The provisions, I believe, will be effective in curbing smoking activities in these places. At the same time, these provisions are fair, because they never require the manager or the operator to immediately report to the authority once they discover that a person smokes in a specified place or vehicle. Instead, they require them to first inform the offender of the law and ask such person to cease smoking or to leave the place. Only when these actions fail that they are required to seek the assistance of the authority.

Sir, the Bill also enables the Minister to prohibit smoking in specified public service vehicles. May I ask the Minister what vehicles he intends to gazette soon after the passing of this Bill and whether such vehicles also cover passenger aircraft, sea craft and tourist coaches?

Sir, this legislation is part of our anti-smoking campaign. It therefore also serves to send a strong signal to smokers that smoking is no good because it harms both the smokers and those who are around. It would be interesting to know just what percentage of the population actually smokes, say, for the last five years and how much has the figure dropped since the Government stepped up its anti-smoking campaign. In fact, one of my friends who is a smoker told me that he was in favour of these prohibition measures because they had helped him to cut down on his smoking.

I am pleased to note that we are amending the requirements on signs to inform the public of smoking prohibition so that the wording can be toned down and made to sound less harsh. I feel that many people nowadays would agree that it is far preferable to be exhortative and educational in the tone that we adopt, rather than threatening and severe.

Sir, I support the Bill.

Mr Chin Harn Tong: Sir, I support the amendments, but I have some points to clarify with the Minister.

(1) Why are cinemas and theatres within private clubs no longer to be exempted from the prohibition on smoking?

(2) What is the present law on the prohibition of smoking in taxis and buses, and what changes will the Bill make to the present law?

(3) What are the problems encountered by managers of specified buildings in implementing the no-smoking rule?

Dr Ahmad Mattar: Mr Speaker, Sir, first of all, I would like to thank Dr John Chen and Mr Chin Harn Tong for speaking in support of the Bill.

Before I answer Dr Chen's question on how many offenders under the present Act have been prosecuted, I would like to take this opportunity to explain to Dr Chen and this House how effective the present legislation has been in bringing about a smoke-free environment in specified places. Sir, overall, smokers are observing the no-smoking rule rather well, especially in such places as airconditioned restaurants, airconditioned departmental stores and supermarkets, lifts, medical clinics, hospitals and cinemas. We owe this success to the peer pressure from the non-smokers as well as the cooperation of the management of these premises.

However, in places such as billiard saloons and bowling alleys, the situation is not as good. 75% of all offences on smoking are committed in billiard saloons and bowling alleys. The managements of billiard saloons and bowling alleys must therefore exercise greater responsibilities towards their non-smoking customers.

Dr John Chen also wants to know about the profile of smokers in Singapore. Unfortunately, the statistics of the profile of smokers in Singapore are kept by the Ministry of Health. I must say that the Smoking (Prohibition in Certain Places) Act may have inconvenienced some smokers, but I do not think it has reached a point to cause them to cut down their smoking or even to give up smoking entirely, except perhaps for Dr John Chen's friend who, I am happy to know, has found that this particular Act has prompted him to give up smoking.

On the subject of reducing the number of smokers in Singapore, I believe the Government has an on-going programme to warn the smokers on the harmful effects of cigarettes and also to advise them on how to give up smoking. This is the national smoking control programme organised and administered by the Ministry of Health.

Dr Chen also wants to know the list of vehicles my Ministry intends to gazette for which smoking is prohibited with the enactment of the new Bill. Sir, he may be pleased to know that the following public service vehicles as defined under the Road Traffic Act will be gazetted as specified vehicles where smoking is prohibited:

(i) Private buses hired for the transportation of workers, including company buses, used for the transportation of its employees;

(ii) School buses, taxis, regardless of whether they are airconditioned or not;

(iii) Omnibuses or public buses on scheduled services. This last category of vehicles is already being gazetted under the existing law.

If I may now turn to the queries raised by Mr Chin Harn Tong. Firstly, he wants to know why the current exemption on the prohibition of smoking for cinemas and theatres in private clubs is removed from the Bill. Sir, the existing exemption for cinemas and theatres in private clubs was included in the Act when it was first introduced in 1970. With this exemption in place, the smoking prohibition rule would not apply even if a cinema or a theatre in a private club is in fact accessible to the public. So this is an anomaly, Sir, and one of the objectives of the Bill before the House is to address this anomaly. With the removal of the exemption, the smoking prohibition law will apply to cinemas and theatres in private clubs for as long as they are accessible to the public. But if these facilities are used only by members of the club and their guests, the law will not apply.

Next, Mr Chin wants to know the current legislation on the prohibition of smoking in taxis and buses and the changes that will be made with the enactment of this Bill. Let me deal with taxis first. Under the existing legislation, a taxi driver is not allowed to smoke in his taxi regardless of whether the taxi is airconditioned or not. On the other hand, passengers in a non-airconditioned taxi are allowed to smoke while those in airconditioned taxis are not allowed to smoke. These rules are clearly spelt out under the Road Traffic (Public Service Vehicles) Rules of 1976 which are currently being administered by the Registrar of Vehicles.

As far as buses are concerned, the driver, the conductor and passengers in a public bus on a scheduled route are not allowed to smoke regardless of whether the bus is airconditioned or not. This prohibition is made under the Smoking (Prohibition in Certain Places) Act administered by the Ministry of the Environment. So with the enactment of this Bill, smoking will be prohibited in taxis, airconditioned or otherwise, and all public buses which will include those that are hired or chartered to transport school children, office or factory workers.

Lastly, Mr Chin wants to know the problems encountered by managers of specified buildings in which smoking prohibition law applies. If the managers of specified premises in which the smoking prohibition law applies want to act, I do not think they will face real difficulty in explaining the law and requesting their customers to extinguish the cigarettes. If in the event that they do come across a very difficult customer, they can always contact the police or the Environment Ministry for assistance. It is usually the reluctance on the part of the managers to act that becomes a problem. And managers are reluctant to act not so much out of fear of intimidation or reprisals, but because they are just not willing to offend the customers for reasons of future patronage. So I would like to stress that managers of such premises, and indeed operators of vehicles, where the law applies, have a responsibility to the comfort and well-being of their non-smoking customers. With the enactment of this Bill, managers will be duty bound to act against those who smoke within their premises or inside the vehicles, as the case may be.

Dr Tan Cheng Bock rose ---

Mr Speaker: Sorry, the debate is over.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Dr Ahmad Mattar].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.