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** 31 January 2022
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** UK
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** Warning to drivers who smoke cigarettes over 'unexpected' new Highway code rule (#1)
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** NI smoking ban: what legal changes are coming into effect on Tuesday? (#2)
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** GPs to be nationalised in Javid's plan to reduce hospital admissions (#3)
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** New bill would give UK Government more power to change laws taken from EU (#4)
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** Up to 1 million women in UK at risk of harm from gambling, study finds (#5)
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** UK
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** Drivers who smoke are being urged to make themselves aware of an update to the Highway Code that came into force this week allowing motorists to be fined for throwing cigarette butts from the car window. The “incorrect disposal of a cigarette” can now result in a fine of between £50 - £100.
Finance experts from CarMoney have warned that increasing numbers of motorists are being caught out by "unexpected fines". CarMoney said that whilst behaviours such as making phone calls whilst driving are widely known to be illegal, behaviours such as throwing a cigarette out of a window are common and will require further publicity to amplify their illegality to smokers.
The changes came into force on January 28 as part of an update to the law requiring those who can do greatest harm to others to have a higher level of responsibility to reduce the danger. This means for example that someone driving will have more responsibility to watch out for people cycling, walking, or riding a horse, and cyclists will have more responsibility to notice pedestrians.
Source: Liverpool Echo, 30 January 2022
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** A ban on smoking in vehicles carrying children is to come into full legal effect across Northern Ireland on Tuesday 1 February. The ban will also make it illegal for a driver to smoke in a private vehicle when there is more than one person present in the vehicle and the vehicle is enclosed, or for the driver to allow someone else to smoke in the vehicle while children under 18 are present.
The bill encompasses ‘enclosed’ vehicles, which includes times when the windows are down, or the doors open. However, the rules do not apply to motorcycles or to convertible cars when the roof is completely down. An exemption is also permitted for caravans and motor homes which, since their primary purpose is for accommodation, are only required to be smokefree when on the road.
Those found smoking in smokefree private vehicles will receive a fixed penalty notice of £50 or a maximum fine of £2,500 if convicted by a court. Drivers allowing others to smoke in a smokefree private vehicle will face a fixed penalty notice of £50 or a maximum fine of £1,000 if convicted. Northern Ireland is the last UK nation to make the move to smokefree vehicles, with England and Wales implementing the ban in 2015 and Scotland and the Republic of Ireland in 2016.
Tuesday will also see new legislation banning the sale of e-cigarettes to under-18s. Businesses caught will be given a fixed penalty notice of £250 or a maximum of £5000 if convicted by a court.
Source: Belfast Telegraph, 31 January 2022
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** Health Secretary Sajid Javid is considering radical changes to the structure of the NHS that would see GPs nationalised, with many family doctors being directly employed by hospitals instead of running their own surgeries. The proposal is part of a review of primary care planned by Javid that will look at how to better integrate GPs with hospital care to reduce patient numbers in hospital.
Sources told The Times that there would be no forcible state takeover of GPs but that GPs would be given incentives to connect with hospital trusts. Javid is also reviewing hospital management to hold NHS chiefs more accountable as well as considering “academy style” hospitals with more freedoms, which he hopes will start taking over GPs.
This month Javid wrote to the prime minister with his ideas for NHS reform. Javid said that there had been an underinvestment in prevention in the NHS and that “academy style” hospitals could drive innovation" by "bringing together primary and secondary care”. Doctors are likely to resist the plans, saying that the independence of GPs boosts innovation and offers value for taxpayer money.
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Source: The Times, 29 January 2022
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** Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a proposed new bill on the two-year anniversary of Brexit which would allow new changes to legislation originally modelled on EU law to be made more easily. Speaking on Monday 31 January, Johnson said that the changes would allow the UK to shape better regulation in its "strong" areas like cyber technology and artificial intelligence.
Downing Street said that the changes would build on others since Brexit, which include a move to simplify alcohol duties from 2023, scrapping the EU-mandated 5% rate of VAT on tampons, and creating a new UK regime for regulating government support to industry. The Government has also implemented several changes to tobacco control since Brexit, including the use of new picture warnings on cigarette packs and new Government powers to amend health warning messages.
The UK had originally transposed EU directives into UK law when it left the EU on 31 January 2020 in order to make the process smoother. Under Brexit withdrawal legislation passed in 2018, retained EU laws have a legal status of their own and a special process for changing them, which the Government said under the present system could take years to do.
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** The bill has sparked concerns in the devolved nations, which have obtained new powers in certain policy areas since Brexit. The Scottish Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution Angus Robertson said the bill would "undermine devolution" whilst Mick Antoniw, Welsh Minister for the Constitution, said the UK government was driving a "coach and horses through the concept of mutual consent".
Source: BBC News, 31 January 2022
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** A new study has suggested that up to a million women are at risk of harm from online gambling. The study found that the number of women seeking treatment for gambling addiction has doubled in the past five years from 1,134 in 2015-16 to 2,423 in 2020-21. The study, by GambleAware and to be published later this year, found that visits to gaming sites with a mainly female customer base tend to peak in the Winter months, with a rise of 29% between December and March.
The study also found that two in five women remain unwilling to seek treatment for the issue due to stigma and embarrassment. Women were found to avoid seeking help despite being more likely than men to report mental health difficulties caused by gambling, such as anxiety or stress. GambleAware is responding with an advertising campaign which launches today highlighting warning signs such as losing track of time, spending unaffordable sums, and hiding gambling from friends and family. It is thought that increased ease of access, with gambling apps aimed at women on smartphones, has been a major driver of the rise in the number of women gambling.
Source: The Guardian, 31 January 2022
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