Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the government will “take decisions” on a potential outdoor smoking ban forming part of a new bill aimed at eventually eradicating the habit and alleviating pressure on the NHS.
Business leaders have warned that proposals to ban outdoor smoking in beer gardens and outside stadiums would be another “nail in the coffin” for pubs and bars, already hit hard by the lockdowns and the cost-of-living crisis.
Starmer told reporters in Paris: “My starting point on this is to remind everyone that over 80,000 people lose their lives every year because of smoking.
“It’s a huge burden on the NHS, and, of course, it’s a burden on the taxpayer. So, yes, we are going to take decisions in this space,“ he said, adding that smoking-related deaths were ”preventable.”
He said that more details would be revealed in due course, adding: “I think it’s important to get the balance right, but everybody watching this who uses the NHS will know that it’s on its knees.
‘A Libertarian Issue’
Tim Martin, founder of JD Wetherspoon, said he was not personally concerned about his business being harmed but said the proposed ban raises a “libertarian issue.”
He said: “The question is whether the government should interfere in individual liberties where danger is involved.
“Mountaineering is dangerous, for example. Horse riding, statistically, causes many serious injuries. I don’t think it will have a big effect on our business, one way or the other, and is really a libertarian issue.”
He pointed out that Wetherspoon was the first pub group to open non-smoking venues before the 2007 smoking ban, adding: “The rationale then was that non-smokers should be free to avoid passive smoking. That argument is diluted outside.”
In July 2007, under the last Labour government, smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces was made illegal across the UK.
Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attempted to eventually outlaw the sale of cigarettes through his Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which had passed its first reading in Parliament when the general election was called.
Although the bill won widespread support from health professionals and charities, some backbench MPs were opposed to it both on libertarian and on practical grounds, questioning how the age restrictions on buying cigarettes would be enforced.
According to health charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), in the year following the introduction of the indoor ban, there was a 2.4 percent reduction in hospital admissions for heart attacks in England, saving the NHS £8.4 million in the first year alone.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, said: “The priority is to get the bill back in Parliament and put on the statute book, to end smoking for the next generation and curb youth vaping.
“ASH would support the inclusion of powers to extend smoke-free laws outdoors, subject to consultation.”
She added: “However, it’s also important to ensure that there are still outdoor areas where people who smoke can smoke in the open air, rather than inside their homes.”
Simon Clark, director of the charity FOREST (Freedom of the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco) said his organisation would fight an outdoor ban.
“Smoking bans must be evidence based and there is no evidence that smoking in the open air is a significant threat to the health of non-smokers.”
He added: “The indoor smoking ban did enormous damage to the pub industry. Extending the ban to beer gardens could force many more pubs to close.
“If it’s true that the government intends to extend the smoking ban to a raft of outdoor areas, Britain will no longer be a nanny state.
“We will have crossed a line and become a bully state in which people could be fined and punished merely for lighting a cigarette outside a pub or in a park.”
‘Ill Thought-Through’
Chris Jowsey, chief executive of Admiral Taverns, said: “I’m no fan of smoking, but I just can’t see how this will improve health outcomes if you move people from smoking in a pub garden to smoking at home.“It doesn’t really make any sense to me. It feels really ill-thought through.”
Jowsey, whose company runs more than 1,600 pubs across the UK, added: “A pub is the last community asset left standing in many communities. Anything that undermines their ability to survive and grow their business is a bad thing, not just for the pub, but for the community.
“What are we going to do? Will we have to employ people now to just patrol the gardens to make sure nobody’s smoking? It seems a bit nuts.”
Clive Watson, chairman of Inda pub group, called the policy “a bonkers idea,” and added: “Surely, after all the pub industry has been through, we should be allowed a period of stability.”
The number of pub closures increased to 80 per month over the first three months of 2024, up by 51 percent compared with the same period last year, according to official data for England and Wales
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, writing in The Telegraph, said he might “never go to the pub again” if the outdoor ban came into being, adding: “The Puritans are on the march. We must all be controlled for our own good. I expect the anti-alcohol debate, with corresponding levels of national propaganda, to pick up pace over the coming years.”
