On 1 March, the law around where people can smoke in Wales changed. Hospital grounds, school grounds, public playgrounds, and outdoor care settings for children are now be required to be smoke-free. It is an offence to smoke in a smoke-free area and anyone caught breaking the law could face a £100 fine.

The legislation will also make changes in the tourism sector. There are currently exemptions that allow smoking in self-contained holiday and temporary accommodation (cottages, caravans, chalets and Airbnb etc.) and for hotels, guesthouses, inns, hostels and members’ clubs to have smoking bedrooms. The new legislation keeps these exemptions, but only for a limited time (until 1 March 2022). It also requires that designated smoking bedrooms in place in hotels etc. before 1 March 2022, meet certain conditions. 

Therefore, from 1 March 2022 all types of self-contained holiday and temporary accommodation and all hotels, guest houses and inns etc will be required to be smoke-free. We have provided 12 months to enable businesses to phase out any smoking accommodation and convert it to become smoke-free. 

Further information on the changes is available on the Welsh Government website.

If you have any questions on the introduction of the legislation or its requirements, please contact the tobacco policy team on TobaccoPolicy@gov.wales