Health experts have welcomed the proposals for tougher regulations on smoking, but leading figures in the hospitality sector could hinder some businesses, especially pubs.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the government is to look at the strict rules for smoking outside helping to reduce the number of preventable diseases linked to tobacco use, and the burden on the NHS.
The details are still unclear, but if it goes ahead smoking could be banned in pub gardens, outside restaurants and outside hospitals and stadiums.
Hospitality leaders who have criticized the plans have met with opposition politicians, who have described the proposals as excessive regulation.
Any new ban would only apply in England. It is not yet clear whether it would apply in the UK, although devolved governments may choose to bring in similar legislation.
Dr Layla McCay of the NHS, who speaks on behalf of NHS organisations, said it would reduce the “huge problems” caused by smoking for individuals and society.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that smoking is the number one cause of preventable disease in the UK.
“We are encouraged to see progress being made,” Dr McCay added.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the charity Action on Smoking and Health, said the public expected “not to have to breathe secondhand smoke in places like children’s play areas and outdoor seating areas”. pubs, restaurants and cafes”.
However, Ms Arnott said it was important that smokers still had access to some outdoor areas to “smoke in the open, rather than in their homes”.
Those in the hospitality industry worry that the ban will hurt businesses even more.
The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), which represents 20,000 pubs in the UK, says pub numbers have fallen significantly due to factors including the Covid epidemic and the energy crisis.
“This needs to be carefully considered before we damage businesses and economic growth and jobs,” Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality trade group, told the Today programme.
Revolution Bars chief executive Rob Pitchers said he was not convinced that smoking in beer gardens was “so widespread that it would cause any problems for the NHS at all”.
But JD Wetherspoon founder Sir Tim Martin said: “I don’t think it will have a huge impact on our business, one way or the other.”
Small pub owners share a different story.
Lisa Burrage, 55, from Newland, Gloucestershire, said pubs should choose whether to be smoke-free and “it’s not for the government to make that decision”.
“This is going to be another obstacle we have to face in hosting and one we can do without,” Ms Burrage told the BBC.
Tony Harding, 57, a Salisbury taxman, said residents living near his house would be unhappy if his players started smoking and “blocking the street, as opposed to [using] my beautiful garden of comfort”.
These concerns are echoed by opposition politicians.
Conservative leadership candidate Priti Patel said the proposals amounted to a “nanny state” that would “destroy the economy”.
Another Tory leadership candidate, Robert Jenrick, said: “The last thing this country needs is thousands more adverts being shut down.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage described the proposals as “government overreach on an absurd scale”.
“Frankly, if they do this, it will be the death of salespeople,” added Farage.
The Prime Minister’s plans follow the previous government’s proposal to ban the sale of tobacco to anyone born on or after January 2009.
The King’s speech at the State Opening of Parliament last month promised to reinstate the law.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Sir Keir said the “preventable” death toll from smoking was placing a “tremendous burden” on the NHS and taxpayers.
He said the government “will take decisions in this area” and further details will be revealed.
Richard Lawrence, a man in his 30s, he supports the project and does not understand why it is being taken the wrong way.
Mr Lawrence told the BBC: “I’d be more likely to go to a restaurant if the ban was in place, I’d be happy to have a nice beer garden and enjoy my food and drink without having to worry about it.” with the disgusting smell of. those who smoke and blow their smoke at me.”
Tobacco use is the single biggest preventable cause of death in the UK, killing two-thirds of long-term users and causing 80,000 deaths every year.
Around 12.9% of people aged 18 and over in the UK – or around 6.4 million people – will be smoking cigarettes by 2022 according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics.
That is the lowest proportion of current smokers since records began in 2011.
Selva Venugopalan, 45, has a three-year-old son and his wife, Geraldine, is pregnant with their second child.
He told the BBC the proposals were “absurd”.
“I don’t want to smoke an old man. I don’t want my children to smoke when they are young.”
In its guidance on second-hand or second-hand smoke, Cancer Research UK says all forms of exposure to secondhand smoke are “unsafe”, while the NHS says second-hand smoke is “a deadly mix of irritants that more than 4,000, toxic and carcinogenic substances”.
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