2. To ask the Scottish Government what the expected impact on health will be from the ban on smoking in cars with children present. (S5T-00246)

The overall health of children will be improved by reducing their exposure to the harmful effects of second-hand smoke in cars. Second-hand smoke can have serious negative health impacts on a child, including coughing, wheezing, asthma, middle-ear disease and respiratory tract infections, such as bronchitis and pneumonia.

I thank the Minister for that answer and the steps that the Government is taking to protect children from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke. It sends a clear message that children in Scotland should be growing up in a healthy, smoke-free environment. How will the Government monitor the effectiveness of the legislation and, over the longer term, will it review whether the penalties available are providing a useful deterrent?

Before I respond in detail to Maree Todd’s supplementary question about monitoring, I note that our Liberal Democrat colleagues are in the chamber and I put on record our thanks to Jim Hume for his work in the previous parliamentary session to introduce the Smoking Prohibition (Children in Motor Vehicles) (Scotland) Bill.

I also want to highlight the approach that we are taking more generally to reducing the harm that tobacco causes. The take it right outside campaign, which encourages adults to smoke outdoors, has helped us to reach our target of reducing children’s exposure to second-hand smoke from 11 per cent in 2013 to 6 per cent in 2020—we have reached the target five years early. The Smoking Prohibition (Children in Motor Vehicles) (Scotland) Act 2016, which came into force yesterday, demonstrates our commitment to going further on the issue.

We are increasing restrictions on the sale of tobacco and electronic cigarettes to under-18s, limiting the advertising of such products, and bringing in a mandatory ban on smoking near hospital buildings to protect people from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke. We are also examining proposals to extend the current ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces to prisons.

We will work with partners in environmental health and the national health service and with others to continue to monitor the effectiveness of our legislation and consider what further steps should or could be taken to ensure that we create a tobacco-free generation by 2034.

Given that children who grow up with a parent or someone else smoking around them are much more likely to become smokers, and that two thirds of adult smokers say that they started smoking as children, we can make a real impact on health in future by protecting children from tobacco.

I was going to ask the Minister what wider action the Scottish Government is taking to create a tobacco-free generation in Scotland by 2034, but I think that she might have answered the question and I am not sure whether there is anything more that she wants to say.

I can let Maree Todd know that, in addition to the range of activity that I set out, smoking cessation advice and support are available to all pregnant women in Scotland to help to ensure that each child has the healthiest start in life. We are taking forward a range of activities to ensure that we have a tobacco-free generation by 2034.

I thank the Minister for her recognition of the work by my good friend Jim Hume and the Liberal Democrats in stewarding the Smoking Prohibition (Children in Motor Vehicles) (Scotland) Bill through the Parliament.

When he was Minister for Public Health in the previous session, Michael Matheson said:

“We have no current plans to consult on extending Scotland’s smoke-free Laws to private cars. Successful implementation of the smoking ban has undoubtedly already reduced exposure to second-hand smoke among children in Scotland.”—[

Official Report

, 24 November 2011; c 3873.]

Today, however, the 2016 act gets well-deserved fanfare and a beautiful Scottish National Party infographic that claims credit for it. Does the minister agree that without my good friend Jim Hume’s Intervention we would not have passed the 2016 act and be celebrating today the protection of tens of thousands of Scottish young people?

Despite a degree of friendliness—I suppose—at the start of the member’s question, his comments descended into churlishness. We should remember that we voted unanimously for the bill in each and every party in the Parliament. I have put on record our thanks to Jim Hume; of course he introduced the member’s bill, but we had already put in place pieces of legislation to take forward our ambitions for a smoke-free generation by 2034. Indeed, the previous Administration, under Labour, had started much of the work. All the parties have worked hard to improve public health in Scotland, and I hope that we will continue to work in a spirit of consensus to make further gains in public health in Scotland.