Commentary on Sections Part 3.Tobacco and Nicotine Products Chapter 1 - Smoking Section 16 - Smoke-free premises: exemptions
37.This section gives the Welsh Ministers a power to make regulations to exempt premises or places in Wales from the requirement to be smoke-free. These regulations may exempt defined premises or specific areas within premises. For example, a designated bedroom within a hotel or a designated room in a research or testing facility could be exempted from the smoke-free requirements.
38.An equivalent power to exempt premises, for the purposes of smoke-free premises under the Health Act 2006, is included at section 3 of that Act. Regulation 3 of the Smoke-free Premises etc. (Wales) Regulations 2007, made in exercise of the power at section 3 of the Health Act 2006, sets out the premises within which managers may designate smoking rooms (i.e. may designate rooms as being exempt from the smoke-free requirements of the Health Act 2006). Exemptions currently apply to specific rooms within care homes, adult hospices, mental health units, research or testing facilities, hotels, guesthouses, inns, hostels and members’ clubs. These regulations stay in place until regulations are made using the powers in this section of this Act.