Council capers

The plot thickens.

On Monday Forest published a report, 'Smokefree Ideology: How local authorities are waging war on choice and personal freedom'.

It includes an analysis of the 283 responses writer and researcher Josie Appleton received following a Freedom of Information request to over 350 councils in England, Wales and Scotland concerning council policies on smoking during working hours.

The FOI requests were sent in March and the responses dribbled in between then and August.

We gave the key findings to the Telegraph in advance of publication and on Sunday the paper published an exclusive report that lead with the most newsworthy titbit – 'Council banned staff from smoking at their desks at home'.

The guidance may have been five years old but to the best of our knowledge it was still current policy. It was newsworthy moreover because very few people knew about it and since lockdown many council staff have been working from home.

Crucially - and this is important in view of subsequent developments - the policy (or 'guidance') was sent to Josie towards the end of April (ie well after lockdown was introduced in March).

On Saturday, however, in response to a fact-checking call from the Telegraph, Kensington and Chelsea told the paper that the policy had been dropped in February. This was duly reported by the Telegraph.

But wait, what’s this? Stung perhaps by the hostile reaction to the Telegraph report, Hammersmith and Fulham is also denying that it is their policy to "instruct people about smoking in their own homes".

The Telegraph has therefore amended the online version of its report.

To be clear, Josie asked the councils for their policy on staff smoking in working hours in March and what she included in her report is what she was sent on April 21 when lockdown was well established, so to say the story is "untrue" seems a bit disingenuous.

Either way, both councils appear to have abandoned or distanced themselves from talk of banning smoking in the home, which is good news.

In fact, I would call that a result!