A patient at a high-security psychiatric hospital has gone to court to challenge a blanket ban on smoking imposed on the institution.

Charles McCann is detained at the State Hospital Carstairs under court orders. He wants to smoke but is not allowed to light up or even have possession of cigarettes after the hospital board brought in a smoking ban in December 2011.

His counsel David Leighton told the Court of Session in Edinburgh: "He accepts the validity of a partial ban on smoking. So far as Mr McCann is concerned he would wish to smoke in the open air."

McCann has raised a judicial review of the decision seeking to have it set aside or suspended. He is also seeking a declaration from the court that the move breached his human rights.