A FORMER Gwent health chief was condemned by Welsh Secretary Peter Hain yesterday, over a Bill aimed at banning smoking in public places in Wales.

Baroness Finlay, of Llandaff, the previous director of Gwent Health Authority Professor Ilora Finlay, is seeking the support of the House of Lords to give the National Assembly powers to stop anyone in Wales smoking tobacco in public.

Her Bill, entitled The Smoking In Public Places (Wales) Bill, published yesterday has been scheduled for debate by the House of Lords on Friday.

If it became law it would be left to the Assembly to introduce the ban, to prescribe what it defined as a public place and what penalties should be imposed on offenders found guilty of breaking the law.

But yesterday Mr Hain challenged her over whether she wanted smokers arrested on the spot if they defied the ban.

He said Baroness Finlay, should answer some hard questions. "Is it going to become a criminal offence - are you going to be arrested on the spot and taken down the clink - or is there going to be some other kind of sanction?" said Mr Hain.

Lady Finlay's move comes at a time when Tony Blair has launched a public consultation through his Big Conversation exercise to discover whether there is public support for any move towards banning smoking in public places.

Mr Hain said there must be proper consultation before any decision was taken. Don Touhig, Welsh Minister and Mr Hain's deputy said: "This will inform the debate but it is possibly not the answer."

He asked how 'public place' would be defined and would it include smoking in your own car.

If peers give a second reading to the Bill on Friday, it will be examined by a committee before being sent to the Commons, where Welsh MPs can scrutinise it, but it is unlikely to progress further.

No one from the Assembly was available for comment.