smoking ban

[Quiznunc]

The recent media frenzy about MPs having special treatment reminded me that I heard a year or so back on Radio 4 that when the above was introduced in England, it would not apply to bars and restaurants within Parliament.

I find it hard to believe that persons passing legislation could be exempt from its effects and would have thought that if what I thought I'd heard there was correct, there would have been a furore by now. Can anyone either definitely confirm or deny the substance of what I'm still fairly certain I heard?

[Fitzer]

Strictly speaking the smoking ban does not apply to the Houses of Parliamentas they are Crown Estates property and the laws of the land do not apply there but MPs decided that they should abide by the ban of their own volition. Don't know what penalties could be enforced though.

[Quiznunc]

Thanks very much for a most satisfactory answer that confirms I was right in what I'd heard but that MPs are not getting away with something they've deemed should apply to the general public.

[kempie]

It is the Parliamentary Estate, thanks to its historic privileges, that was exempt from, but chose to follow the priciples laid down by, the legislation.

Crown Estate property is of course governed by "the laws of the land" - they make up a significant proportion of that land.