Government wants to make it ‘much more likely’ smokers will give up habit

The Government wants smokers to be “much more likely” to give up the habit by introducing changes such as reducing the number of places where a person can smoke, a minister has said.

Leaked proposals, reported by The Sun newspaper earlier this week, suggest the Government will ban smoking in some outdoor areas, such as at restaurants and hospitals, to improve public health.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told reporters on Thursday that the Government will “take decisions” on smoking, and “more details will be revealed”.

Speaking to Sky News on Friday, education minister Baroness Jacqui Smith said that “what we’re trying to do is to make, both through lifting the age at which you can start smoking, by providing ways in which you can get out of smoking, and by making fewer places where you actually can smoke, we want to make it much more likely that people who are direct active smokers will actually want to give up smoking and, by doing that, safeguard their own health and safeguard the NHS and the pressures that smoking brings on to it.”

On concerns about the impact on the hospitality industry, Lady Smith also pointed to “the last time I was in government” when the indoor smoking ban was introduced.

“There was a lot of concern at that point about how it was actually going to work” she said.

“I think most people now, including in the hospitality industry, would say our pubs, our restaurants, are much better places because they’re no longer filled with smoke.”

In 2007, under the last Labour government, smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces was made illegal across the UK.

During a visit to Paris on Thursday, Sir Keir told reporters that “over 80,000 people lose their lives every year because of smoking”.

He added: “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.

“More details will be revealed, but this is a preventable series of deaths, and we’ve got to take the action to reduce the burden on the NHS and reduce the burden on the taxpayer.”

On Thursday, Reem Ibrahim, acting director of communications at the Institute of Economic Affairs think tank, said banning outdoor smoking would be “another nail in the coffin for the pub industry”.

She said: “The Government’s own impact assessment concluded that banning smoking outdoors will lead to pub closures and job losses.

“Pubs and other private venues should be able to determine their own outdoor smoking rules, just as they should be allowed to decide whether to play music, serve food or show football on TV.”

Former Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak had announced plans to crack down on smoking with the Tobacco and Vapes Bill last year.

The plans had gathered wide cross-party support, but were shelved when the general election was called earlier in the summer.

A YouGov poll on Thursday suggested that 58% of British adults support banning smoking in pub gardens and outside restaurants

It said 35% of people would oppose the measure. YouGov asked 3,715 people on August 29.