Debate contribution: Prisons: Smoking
Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on .
- MLA
- Mrs Naomi Long
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 28 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Prisons: Smoking
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5762167
Read the official Assembly record
Text
There are a number of reasons. We have been looking at and working on that for some time. It is certainly my desire that we would be in a position to be able to end smoking in prisons. We are working at the moment with the health service and the Public Health Agency (PHA) on a proof of concept around allowing people to vape. It is already illegal for people to smoke on landings and in indoor spaces, but it is legal for them to smoke in outdoor spaces and in their cells. The advice at the time, I guess, was that that was proportionate given that their cells are effectively their dwelling. I recognise, however, that prison officers have to go into those cells on occasion and that the smoke is not necessarily always contained within the cell. That that continues causes me concern regarding the health and well-being of prison officers, which is why we have undertaken that proof of concept and are testing it to see whether that will help. We have concerns about vaping in a prison context, as does the PHA. As a means of getting people to desist from smoking, vaping is helpful on occasion. However, we have also stepped up the work that we are doing on smoking desistance, and we offer people, if they wish, the opportunity to give up smoking with the proper medical support and advice.
236 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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