Smoking 'not feasible' at Rampton

Patients detained in a top security psychiatric hospital have lost a High Court test case battle for the right to go on lighting up.

Human rights lawyers say patients at Rampton, in Nottinghamshire, could become the only group of people in the country completely banned from smoking "in the privacy of their home".

Government regulations made under the 2006 Health Act mean that enclosed public places, including hospitals, become "smoke free" from July 1 last year.

Lawyers representing patients detained at Rampton argued the ban was unlawful and discriminatory. But two judges ruled that the ban was justified for "health and security" reasons. The patients were refused permission to appeal, but can still ask the Court of Appeal itself to consider their case because of its important legal implications.

Paul Bowen, appearing for two of the patients, said other people whose homes were in public places, such as prisoners and care home patients, would still be able to smoke under special exemptions.

Rampton patients were detained for long periods - sometimes for life - because they suffered from mental disorders and were considered dangerous and a risk to the public. Very often they had committed serious criminal offences and been found insane at the time they had committed them.

Attempting to overturn the ban, he predicted Rampton patients would become "the only group of people in the country banned from smoking in the privacy of their own home" because many were not allowed outdoors to smoke, like patients at other hospitals.

He argued this was discriminatory under Article 14, and contrary to Article 8 (right to respect for home and private life), of the European Convention on Human Rights.

But senior judges at the High Court in London rejected the challenge. Lord Justice Pill and Mr Justice Silber declared: "Both health and security considerations justify the ban even though smoking in the grounds, which may be possible at other hospitals, is not feasible at Rampton."

The judges also rejected allegations that the ban, introduced in April last year by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, was being operated inflexibly because no exemptions at all had been granted at the hospital.

Share this article

Send this article to a friend »

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Reddit
• Facebook
• StumbleUpon

What are these?