The Health Improvement Commission said in its annual report that nine had joined the scheme since it was launched in 2025, but tobacco harm reduction officer Lucy Cave said that more had signed up since the report was finalised.
‘We’ve got, I think, three that I would say are kind of “in development”,’ she said.
The scheme supports hospitality venues to adopt smoke and vape-free outside dining areas, which contributes to the reduction in passive smoking and provides more smoke-free spaces for families and children.
Guernsey Prison has contributed to the scheme by designing and making branded table-top signs which clearly communicate their smoke-free status.
‘They’re fantastic because the whole point of them is they’re an immediate visible measure that people can see,’ said Miss Cave.
‘Most of the time people don’t want to break the rules, but it might not be apparent.’
But some places were unaware of the scheme.
‘A lot of them either are smoke-free of their own choice already in their outdoor dining areas, or they’re quite happy to implement the scheme.’
Support is given to staff in the form of training as to what they can say in the event that they have to have difficult discussions with customers.
But the comments she said had been received so far had in the main been positive from venues, as well as from families with children, who have welcomed the initiative and the fact that they can see online which venues have the policy in place.
‘We have them on the website and try to keep it updated, so they’re able to know and can say: “Okay, we can go here. We can sit outside, and there definitely won’t be smoke”.’
The commission has also received some positive comments on the idea of a generational ban on smoking – preventing anyone under a certain age from ever being legally allowed to buy tobacco. This was done as part of the consultation for its Clearing the Air report, which has now been submitted to the Health & Social Care Committee.
‘That was with the adult population who responded to the survey, but also in our focus groups with young people,’ said Miss Cave.
‘It was surprising that actually they could definitely see the benefit and understand how it would work in practice.’
Work is also being done on dissuading young people from vaping and lessons on substance use have been held in schools, commissioned by the HIC from Action for Children.
These have been revised to include vaping.
‘For next year and going forwards, I think we’ll scope out whether we need some public awareness campaigns, whether that might be appropriate,’ she said.