Have a guess at how many people within London have been fined since the new laws for smoking in cars was introduced last year? For those of you who guessed zero, well done, you are absolutely correct. Yes, that's right, since the ban was put in place around 5 months not one single person has been prosecuted by Met police for this crime. The law was aimed to protect children from inhaling second hand smoke and there was an extensive ad campaign to back this up.
Across all the London boroughs there have only been two reports of this crime but on both occasions police chose to issue a verbal warning and a £50 spot fine. This will come as a big blow to the ministers who put the law in place and makes the whole situation look like a farce. I've always been sceptic of the law as I'm sure the police have better things to do then check everyone's car to make sure the there is not a smoker in the cabin with children also inside. Frankly the police probably have too much to do as it is and it appears that there are a section that agree, such as Jayne Willets.
Jayne Willets, of the Police Federation says that officers cannot be expected to act as health workers; "Making this an offence that officers are expected to enforce just creates an unnecessary extra layer of bureaucracy. With resources being cut, no force can prioritise their hard-pressed police officers’ time for this. It brings us back to the whole problem of police being “everything for everyone” and, now, health workers."