Guidelines for Marking Out Designated Smoking Areas within Orchard Road's No Smoking Zones

3 Ms Yeo Wan Ling asked the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) what are the guidelines given to premise owners in the marking out of Designated Smoking Areas within Orchard Road No Smoking Zones; and (b) whether, in the past year, there have been complaints from users on the clarity of these markings.

The Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment (Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan) (for the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment): The National Environment Agency (NEA) has published guidelines on the setting up of Designated Smoking Areas (DSAs) on its website. Under the guidelines, premises owners are to ensure that DSA boundaries must be clearly defined using floor stickers or other forms of permanent marking.

In the past year, NEA received one instance of feedback regarding the clarity of markings demarcating a DSA within the Orchard Road No Smoking Zone. NEA has since conducted checks on the condition of all DSAs within the No Smoking Zone and engaged premises owners to make any necessary rectifications. Besides following up on feedback, NEA has and will continue to conduct regular checks and engage premises owners, if necessary, to rectify any non-conformity with the guidelines.

Mr Speaker: Ms Yeo.

Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Pasir Ris-Punggol): I thank Senior Minister of State Dr Khor for the answer. My constituent told me that in certain areas, particularly in tourist areas such as Orchard Road, markings for DSAs can be very confusing and property owners have used items such as planter boxes and other objects which are aesthetically pleasing to denote such smoking areas.

Does the Ministry take the view that property owners should have the responsibility in making these clear demarcations when marking out their smoking areas? If smokers who are confused by the marking have channels for feedback, where should they give the feedback to? And should they be fined, is there recourse for further investigations?

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: I thank the Member for the supplementary questions, as well as for the feedback. As I have noted, NEA publishes the guidelines on the setting up of DSAs. In fact, for certain critical requirements, it is actually legislated in the Smoking (Prohibition in Certain Places) Regulations 2018. Three of the criteria which are legislated are: firstly, it is about the boundary – that the DSA must be clearly demarcated with suitable measures; secondly, it is about the sign – there must be a signage provided either near or within the DSA to say that this is a Designated Smoking Area; and thirdly, you would need to provide at least one disposal receptacle – cigarette butt canister or litter bin with ash tray – within the DSA.

In the Orchard Road No Smoking Zone, there are currently 54 demarcated DSAs, 100 to 200 metres between DSAs, three DSAs are temporarily closed, and six are demarcated with planter boxes. What NEA does is to conduct checks to make sure that the demarcations are clearly done. If it is not, for instance, if there is feedback, then we will work with the premises owners to rectify this, to make sure that they are clearly demarcated.

As regard to enforcement action, if we observe the smoker holding a lit cigarette or smoking in a non-smoking area or smoking prohibited area, enforcement action will be taken. But the offender can appeal, write into NEA with supporting reasons and we will carefully consider the appeal, taking into account the facts of the case to see it there are mitigating factors for leniency to be accorded.