Call to fine firms who ban breastfeeding 
 
  
BUSINESSES who stop women breastfeeding on their premises could soon find
themselves fined up to £2500.

Backbench MSP Elaine Smith is today urging the Scottish Parliament to back
her Bill which would make it a criminal offence to stop women breastfeeding
in public.

The proposal has the backing of health minister Malcolm Chisholm and
Holyrood's Health Committee, and now Parliament will debate it.

If MSPs back the general principles of the Breastfeeding (Scotland) Bill it
will progress to stage two and move one step closer to becoming law.

The Bill, introduced last December, would make it a criminal offence for
venues which usually admit children to deliberately prevent children under
the age of two being fed breastmilk or bottled milk.

Ms Smith, the MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, said: "If somebody persists
then, yes, they should be fined, because I believe it's criminal to treat
mums and children in this way.

"Asking a mother to desist from nurturing behaviour is the crime."

A Scottish Executive spokesman said ministers supported policies to promote
breastfeeding.

He added: "The Executive is content with the conclusions of the Health
Committee on enforcement and for the Bill to proceed."

But the Tories said the scheme was "the nanny state taken to the extreme" at
a time when attitudes were changing anyway.

Tory health spokesman David Davidson said: "We should let this voluntary
evolutionary change take its course."

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland also branded the move
"punitive and combative" in evidence to the Health Committee.

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