Smoking consultation: Waiting game

The day when the government must make up its mind about smoking is getting ever closer. Daniel Pearce looks at what the trade told the Department of Health during the recent smoking consultation.

At the time The Publican sat down with Caroline Flint two weeks into the government's consultation on smoking in July, the health minister was hearing a lot more from anti-smoking campaigners than she was from the pub trade.

Two months on, and with the consultation now closed, the likes of Action on Smoking and Health and others may have shouted longest and loudest, but at least the industry can say it has done its very best to redress the balance.

Hundreds of licensees have had their say through The Publican's own initiatives, with 159 responding to our detailed submission and 491 signing up to our joint postcard initiative with the Atmosphere Improves Results (AIR) clean-air campaign.

More than 2,700 BII members have sent in their views to the Department of Health (DoH) through another postcard initiative - and the BII has sent in a detailed submission of its own - while many more licensees are believed to have written in individually.

Managed chains, pub companies and brewers have also had their say through the British Beer & Pub Association and the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers' submissions.

The DoH refused to confirm last week how many submissions it had received, but said a bill was now likely to be published before the end of the year.

Discussions will carry on this autumn, with all the same submissions now being forwarded on to MPs on the All-Party Health Select Committee for further debate.

The issue will also be to the fore in the House of Lords, when a committee should finally hear the Private Bills from Liverpool City Council and Westminster City Council, asking for local authorities to be given the right to set their own smoking policies. The Publican is expecting to be called to give evidence after lodging an objection to the bills in February.

Will the government finally put us all out of our misery and do the right thing for the pub trade? Will it prove it has listened to the many comments about how pubs will be affected by an all-out ban? Time will tell.

The following panels detail some of the things the government has been told.

The Publican​

The Publican's detailed submission brought together a series of consistent messages from licensees. More than nine out of 10 (94 per cent) of respondents were against a ban in pubs which serve food, while three quarters (75 per cent) thought the proposed methods of enforcement, such as encouraging people to report smokers and pubs in which smoking was taking place, as inappropriate.

Other messages to emerge included:

• Licensees want the government to hurry up and make a firm decision - and give them as long as possible to prepare
• Licensees are very concerned that if clubs are exempted they could lose their trade to the club down the road
• Many pubs claim they will be forced to choose between food and smoking, and that the policy could result in a return to the smoky, male-dominated and drinks-led pubs of the 1970s
• Any ban must be introduced in the spring or summer, rather than December 2008 as currently proposed, when people will probably be happy to smoke outside
• Licensees were concerned that setting up a hotline for people to report pubs allowing smoking would be open to abuse by people looking to cause trouble for their local pub.

BII​

The BII says it would like to see a deferment of an outright ban, with an extended, flexible timetable to allow businesses the opportunity to put into place provisions to protect their livelihoods.

It is calling for:

• Pubs to be allowed to have separate smoking rooms with good ventilation
• Exemptions for small, single room pubs
• A flexible approach to banning smoking in pubs serving food - so pubs could serve food in a smoke-free environment at lunchtime, but opt to allow smoking and close the kitchen in the evening
• Clubs to be included in any legislation because staff in clubs deserve the same protection as staff in pubs
• Licensees to be given the opportunity to make a business choice on the ban.

ALMR​

The ALMR says it fully supports the intentions of the bill in seeking to improve public health, improving the welfare of staff and taking account of public opinion. However, it suggests there are a number of different ways of achieving this and is calling for:

• Strictly regulated smoking rooms to be allowed in pubs
• Exemptions for the "smallest and most economically marginal businesses"
• Government support for businesses that can demonstrate severe losses attributable to the new regime
• Any action to be implemented according to the maximum possible timetable - possibly from spring 2010 - to allow businesses and customers to prepare
• No exemptions for members' clubs
• Signage to relate only to premises where smoking is permitted; costs of no-smoking signage to the pub trade could amount to more than £2m
• No alternative policy for Wales.

BBPA​

A staged approach to banning smoking is central to the BBPA submission.

It rejects the food-based approach, claiming its own research shows that 34 per cent of the nation's pubs would allow smoking throughout if the policy was implemented.

BBPA communications director Mark Hastings said: "Our phased approach offers the government a sensible way forward that will give pubs and their customers the time needed to manage what would be a major change for the industry. At the same time, it gives both the government and the public a dramatic improvement in smoke-free choice in Britain."

The BBPA suggests government action along the following lines:

• No smoking at the bar in all pubs by the end of 2007
• No smoking in back-of-house areas, such as staff rooms and offices, by the end of 2007
• Pub floor space should become predominantly no-smoking by 2010, with smoking floor space reduced to a maximum of 20 per cent and separate smoking rooms installed where practical
• It also suggests that any legislation should come fully into force from the spring of 2010 to ensure the full support of licensees and staff, and the re-education and co-operation of customers
• It also states members' clubs should not be exempt
• It claims its approach is preferable to the proposed exemption for pubs which do not serve food, since it will reduce the exposure of employees and customers to environmental tobacco smoke in all pubs.