In force since July 2011, the smoking ban within hotel and catering establishments (except for those equipped with a smoking room), is particularly scorned in the Brussels region. This is revealed by figures obtained by the publication Krant van West-Vlaanderen which were subsequently relayed by De Tijd.
In only 17% of all cases, has an offence has been proven to have been committed during a check. Approximately 30,000 checks have been conducted in Belgium in the last five years. Three thousand such checks occurred in the Brussels-Capital region, 9,950 in Wallonia and 16,600 in Flanders.
Significant differences have been noted between the various regions. Thus, only 10.5% of all checks took place in the Brussels region but only a quarter of them revealed an offence.
The province which is the least guilty of infringing the smoking ban is West Flanders where 23% of all checks highlighted an offence.
(Source: Belga)
