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• Executive to adopt smoking ban after 54,000 speak out 

ALMOST 54,000 people and organisations contributed to the Scottish Executive’s consultation on curbing smoking, it emerged yesterday.

Of those, the vast majority are understood to have been in favour of banning smoking in public places. The sheer number of responses, and the weight in favour of a ban, have persuaded ministers to adopt a smoking ban as Executive policy, and this will be announced on 10 November.

The smoking consultation ran from June until the end of September, and the response is almost 40 times higher than any previous Executive consultation. First Minister Jack McConnell’s ambition to ban smoking in Scotland was given a boost when Frank Dobson, the former health secretary, gave his full backing to a Scottish ban and warned the UK government not to settle for a "pathetic compromise" on the issue.

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