Big Brother targets smokers after fag ban

According to reports, company bosses could be fined £1,000 if they do not help investigators.

They must follow government guidance which states: "It is recommended that persons in control of smoke-free premises...keep a written record of any incident where an individual smokes on the premises in contravention of the legislation."

The guidance also states: "Businesses should be encouraged to contact their council after any incident."

All firms have been sent Smoking Incident Forms which record the date, name, offence and action taken.

When the new legislations comes in on July 1, anyone caught smoking in a smoke-free area will face a £50 on-the-spot fine, which could rise to £200 if the case goes to court.

Companies which flout the ban will be fined £2,500.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "If an employee is smoking, the employer would have to remind them of the new law."

The Big Brother tactics are exposed as it is revealed that expensive NHS stop-smoking services have no effect on helping people quit, according to public health experts.

Research has found the Government's flagship £24 million support system makes no difference to smokers trying to give up.

With less than three weeks to the England-wide ban on smoking in public places, doctors said the findings raise serious questions about Britain's anti-smoking strategy.

Professor Robert West, an architect of the Government's original stop-smoking plans, said: "We have lost our way. Primary care trusts are more interested in getting the numbers through the system than providing a high quality service.

"It is all about getting bums on seats. Trusts are told to use a combination of drugs and behavioural support to help smokers quit."

Face-to-face interviews and telephone back-up, combined with medication, are supposed to increase the chances of giving up by four times.

But researchers found that more than 900 people on anti-smoking drugs who took part in a trial saw no benefit from either basic or intensive support.

Instead, the figures were the same as for smokers who had been prescribed medication without support.

Dr Paul Aveyard, senior lecturer in primary care at the University of Birmingham, will tell the National Smoking Cessation Conference on Thursday that the support services are simply not effective.

His research, among 26 practices, followed 925 people who were given interviews and telephone calls before and after they tried to quit.

Half the group received extra visits and telephone calls within four weeks - the deadline for quitting. Just over 100 people in each group had given up after a month.

He concludes: "The absolute quit rates achieved are those expected from nicotine replacement alone, implying that neither basic nor weekly support was effective."

The study says that GPs should refer people to specialist counsellors rather than offer the service themselves.

Professor West, professor of health psychology at University College London, said: "We know that proper behavioural support does work but for some reason when you roll it out across primary care... the effectiveness is lost.

"It calls into question the government strategy of pushing as many people through the service as possible."

He said the system was not working partly because trusts are forced to "drag in" as many people to the stop-smoking clinics as possible, even if they are not motivated.

This means they are far less likely to benefit from the expensive face-to-face support, he said.

About one in four British adults smoke and half tried to stop last year. But only 2.5 per cent will end up quitting permanently, and only 0.2 per cent of them will be because of NHS stop-smoking services, Professor West said.

Primary care trusts - the bodies that commission services locally - are awarded £55 million a year for stop-smoking services, at least half of which is believed to go on nonspecialised clinics.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "Helping people to stop smoking is a priority for the DoH. Health professionals in the primary care setting are ideally placed to provide brief interventions (as recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence) and to refer smokers to their local NHS stop-smoking service."