Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what progress has been made towards making the House of Lords terrace smoke free.

The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. At its meeting on 11 July 2019 the Services Committee considered a paper on changes to the smoking area on the Terrace. At the meeting the Committee agreed to move the Members’ smoking table into the designated smoking area and increase the coverage of the smoking area to reduce the dispersal of smoke across other Terrace users. The Committee was advised that these changes would take place once the scaffolding on the Terrace had been removed.

The Committee further considered the issue at its meeting on 16 January 2020, when, following advice about the issues involved in extending any coverage for a smoking area on the Terrace, the Committee was invited to provide advice on a suitable way forward. Following discussion, the Committee requested that consideration be given to alternative locations for the smoking area; a paper is expected at its March meeting.