Pubs will be smoke-free by next summer, but still no precise start-date

Virtually all enclosed public places and workplaces, including pubs, will be smoke-free by summer 2007.

Following the Health Bill receiving Royal Assent in Parliament, health minister Caroline Flint is still refusing to set a precise start-date for the ban, leaving pubs uncertain of how long they have to prepare their premises and customers for it.

Local authorities are also concerned about the lack of a firm timeframe, despite the publications of guidelines for the ban earlier this month. Liberal Democrat MP Steve Webb raised the issue in the House of Commons last week following pleas from South Gloucestershire Council.

Responding to a request from Labour MP David Taylor - who chairs the All-Party Group on Smoking and Health - Ms Flint said: "We are having discussions with stakeholders about the countdown to the introduction of the legislation, and I hope to report back on the exact date in the autumn".

However, she added that the government still felt that "a date in the warmer weather" would be most conducive to people complying with the law - suggesting the ban is likely to come in before August 2007.

She added she hoped that local groups and organisations would ensure there was a "fun element" to the countdown to a smoke-free England.

Licensee Peter Harvey at the Winking Man in Upper Hulme in Staffordshire said it was "ridiculous" that licensees still didn't know when the ban was going to be brought in.

"It's like the Licensing Act, we didn't know what was going on with that either," he said.

"First they said it was going to happen in 2008, now it seems like they're going to do it in 2007. I wish they would just get on with it now."

A spokeswoman for South Gloucestershire Council said: "We know smoke-free legislation is coming in and the council is supportive of this; we are also aware that local authorities will be responsible for enforcing this legislation.

"We would find it helpful to have a better understanding of what resources will be made available from central government as this will help us to plan the services we can deliver."