Up in smoke: No 10, a stub, outs officials’s “nanny state” plan to ban smoking from pavements outside bars and restaurants

  • No 10 has stopped plans to ban smoking cigarettes on pavements in front of pubs
  • Boris dismissed the Health Promotion Taskforce’s idea. 
  • Tony Blair banned smoking in enclosed public spaces in England.










Downing Street has rejected a proposal by Government advisers to ban smoking outside restaurants and pubs on pavements.

The idea was put forward by the Health Promotion Taskforce – but dismissed by Boris Johnson’s aides as ‘illiberal’ and ‘nanny state’.

A source said: ‘The feeling was that we have enough on our plate without taking that on.’

The licensing regulations would have been the means of implementing the change.

Under the new proposal, smoking would have been allowed in pub gardens but not on public pavements directly outside food and drink venues. Pictured, stock of people smoking in a coffee shop terrace

The new proposal would have allowed smoking in pub gardens, but not on pavements directly outside of food and drink venues. Pictured: A stock of people smoking on a coffee shop terrace

Tony Blair banned smoking in enclosed public places in England in 2007. However, the ban was implemented in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland in 2007.

Although the ban has been widely credited with changing attitudes and helping people quit smoking, its true impact remains to be determined. The rate of smoking declined in the decade following the ban’s introduction was similar to that of the previous decade.

The new proposal would allow smoking in pub gardens, but not on public pavements outside of food and drink venues.

Supporters argue that the argument for such bans has been strengthened due to the increased use of outdoor seating on pavements in front of bars and restaurants during the pandemic.

Passive smoking should not be allowed to occur in close proximity to one another, they argue, and claim that there is public support.

However, the Government has resisted making all of these pavement seating non-smoking.

However, local councils have already begun to implement the move. At least five English local authorities – Northumberland, Durham, Manchester, North Tyneside and Newcastle-upon-Tyne – have banned smoking on pavements outside pubs, restaurants and bars. Oxfordshire County Council plans to ban smoking on pavements outside bars, restaurants, and bars.

But the taskforce wanted to instigate a blanket ban on smoking on pavements outside pubs and restaurants across England, as part of a wider drive to make England ‘smoke-free’ by 2030.

Professor Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, is known to be particularly exercised by the issue. He told a Gresham College conference in May that smoking, which is claimed to result in 90,000. deaths per year, would likely cause more deaths in 2021 than Covid.

The idea was put forward by the Health Promotion Taskforce ¿ but dismissed by Boris Johnson¿s aides as ¿illiberal¿ and ¿nanny state¿

The idea was put forward by the Health Promotion Taskforce – but dismissed by Boris Johnson’s aides as ‘illiberal’ and ‘nanny state’

He was ‘very upset’ about the numbers dying from lung cancer, a disease which he said was ‘caused almost entirely for profit’.

Deborah Arnott, of anti-smoking charity Ash, said the proposed changes ‘won’t damage business because it’s what the public wants, is simpler not more difficult for councils to enforce, and will make it easier for smokers who want to quit to succeed’.

But Simon Clark, of smoking freedoms group Forest, responded: ‘Smoking outside is not a public health issue as there is no proven risk to other people’s health when smokers light up in the open air.

‘The decision on whether to allow smoking outside pubs, bars and restaurants is therefore one for individual proprietors, not government.

‘They know what’s best for their business and imposing further regulations on the hospitality industry following Covid could hurt thousands of businesses that need every customer they can get.’

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