Health groups say Scots smoke ban a success
Two new surveys by health campaigners say the Scottish smoking ban has improved trade and lured new customers to pubs three months after the stub-out.
But trade leaders say it is too early to tell the impact of the ban.
The ASH Scotland survey uses comments from trade spokesmen, quoted in newspapers, to show that predictions of job losses and a fall in trade by the Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA) were "wide of the mark".
It quotes Mitchells & Butlers chief executive Tim Clarke saying like-for-like sales are up 5.8% at some sites
A Punch spokesman is quoted as saying "initial indications in terms of trading are positive" and new customers are visiting pubs.
The survey said "it is still too early to produce definite results" on the ban. But ASH Scotland chief executive Maureen Moore said: "Going smoke-free has been excellent for Scotland. Good for health and good for business."
Meanwhile, a survey of 1,026 adults by Cancer Research UK found that 24% of customers said they are more likely to visit pubs now they are smoke-free. Just 10% would go less often.
Cancer Research UK's director of tobacco control Jean King said: "The results of this survey should reassure publicans still worried that the smoking ban will drive customers away."
Kit Fraser, chairman of Scotland's anti-smoke ban Publican Party, questioned any survey based on anecdotal evidence on trading figures.
He said it is the "kiss of death" for a licensee or operator to say his trade is falling, because punters won't want to visit failing pubs.
"If people get the idea that one week a bar's trade has fallen by a quarter, next week trade is down by a half," Fraser said.
He called Cancer Research's survey "vague" and said it is too early to assess the true impact of the ban.
Fraser predicted Scottish trade would follow Ireland, where he said trade fell 10% to 15% after the ban and 600 pubs closed. "There's no reason to believe we are not in the same boat as Ireland," he said.
SLTA chairman Stuart Ross, boss of the Greene King-owned Scottish brewer and pub operator Belhaven, agreed that there is "no marked down-turn" as a result of the ban.
But he said in spells of bad weather trade has fallen off slightly.
"We've always said that from Belhaven's point of view, we will measure the smoking ban over the course of a year," said Ross.
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Your CommentsRobert Feal-Martinez via email 26/06/2006"Has no one learned the lessons of ASH and the cancer charities. To continue to give them credence is frankly ridiculous. The entire planet, with perhaps the exception of Governments and health organisations, know that ASH wouldn't recognise the truth if it jumped up and bit them. They have nothing substantive to offer so serve up selective and out of context quotes. As for Cancer Research UK's survey. Freedom to Choose have shown how accurate their surveys are and how they distort the results. Whilst not knowing one would suspect the thousand or so people were those pro supporters already on their data base. We know the truth of Ireland as Tadg O'Sullivan has told. We also know from contacts in Scotland that elements of the trade are in serious trouble, as are Bingo Halls and other Community type establishments. The Old and Vulnerable are more at risk than ever before and for what the social engineering of a Britain hating First Minister."
