William Stewart Maxwell (born 24 December 1963) is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician. He was the Minister for Communities and Sport from 2007 to 2009 and a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the West of Scotland region from 2003 to 2016. Early life Maxwell was born on 24 December 1963 in Glasgow, Scotland. Maxwell attended Kings Park Secondary School before graduating from Glasgow College of Technology with a BA Honours Social Sciences. He worked for Strathclyde Fire Brigade between 1993 and 2003 before being elected. Political career He stood as the SNP candidate in the 2003 election and was elected by the regional list. After his election in 2003, Stewart Maxwell became the Deputy Convener of the Parliament's Justice 1 Committee and a member of the Subordinate Legislation Committee. He transferred from Justice 1 to Justice 2 Committee in 2004 and was also appointed to the post of SNP spokesperson on Public Health and the Shadow Deputy Minister for Health. In September 2006 he was promoted to the SNP's Shadow Cabinet when he became the Party Spokesperson for Sport and Culture. At the end of 2006 he moved from the Justice 2 Committee to the Parliament's Enterprise and Culture Committee and remained on the Subordinate Legislation Committee. After the SNP's victory at the 2007 Scottish Parliament Election, he became the Minister for Communities and Sport. However, he returned to the backbenches in the SNP Ministerial reshuffle on 10 February 2009. After leaving Ministerial office he became one of two representatives from the Scottish Parliament on the European Committee of the Regions and became a member of the Parliament's Justice Committee. After the 2011 election he was appointed to the post of Convener of the Education and Culture Committee and as one of the SNP members of the Scotland bill Committee. Stewart Maxwell is best known for being the architect of the ban on smoking in enclosed places in Scotland. He laid a motion in the Scottish Parliament stating that he intended to bring forward a bill to ban smoking in public places in July 2003 and went on to introduce the Bill to ban tobacco smoking in enclosed public places in February 2004. The Scottish Executive at first opposed this proposal, but were eventually forced to accept the idea after it received widespread support. They eventually published their own bill which was passed on 30 June 2005