Ban on vaping and smoking outside schools

...but pub gardens get reprieve

- Jane Kirby

VAPING and smoking in playgrounds and outside schools may be banned although ministers held off also making it illegal in beer gardens.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the hospitality industry has "taken a real battering in recent years" and it was not "the right time" to ban lighting up outside pubs.

But he said smoking and vaping could be banned in other public places in England under the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which was introduced to Parliament yesterday.

In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland it is already an offence to smoke on NHS hospital grounds and this would be the same in England.