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Ban on smoking in playgrounds from next March

Getty Images A playground with a no smoking signGetty Images
A ban on smoking in playgrounds will come into effect in March.

A ban on smoking in playgrounds, school grounds and hospital sites in Wales will begin next March.

Councils will have powers to issue fixed-penalty notices for breaches of the law, the Welsh Government said.

It means smokers at hospital will need to leave the grounds to have a cigarette. Smoking rooms in hotels will also be banned in 2022.

Senedd members backed the measure in a vote on Tuesday night, with 45 politicians voting for the regulations.

The law makes Wales the first country in the UK to ban smoking in playgrounds and school grounds.

Wellbeing minister Eluned Morgan said: "The purpose of the requirements under these regulations for smoke-free hospital grounds is to promote behavioural change, and to help smokers using our hospital services to quit."

The rules approved by the Senedd implement provisions first made in the Public Health Wales Act, which came into law in 2017.

A total of 45 Senedd members passed the new regulations, with four opposed and two abstentions.