I heard again from the Press Complaints Commission officer about the
Berwickshire News item
Health board step up efforts to help both staff and patients stub out their smoking habit. The complaint featured this passage:
The new policy prohibits smoking in the grounds of all the health board’s hospitals and surgeries, with only a few execeptions and harsh penalties for those who don’t comply.
Under the Public Health Scotland Regulations 2006, failure to comply with the policy is a criminal offence. Individuals may be fined a fixed penalty of £50 for smoking in any no-smoking premises.
Their correction runs as follows:
In an article published on January 12 about a new NHS Borders smoking policy we incorrectly stated that "failure to comply with the policy is a criminal offence". The sentence should have stated that "failure to comply with the law is a criminal offence".
We also stated that there would be "harsh penalties" for those who don't comply. We accept that this is also misleading and apologise for the error.
I haven't yet ascertained that this correction will appear online.
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