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'Support growing' for full workplace smoking ban

30/12/2005

PLANS for a partial ban on smoking in public places in England is fatally undermined by the results of a new opinion poll, campaigners said today.

The survey, commissioned by Cancer Research UK and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), found that 72% of Britons backed legislation to make all workplaces, including pubs and bars, smoke-free.

The Government is planning to outlaw smoking in the majority of workplaces in England by the summer of 2007, but with exemptions for private members' clubs and pubs and bars not serving food.

Comprehensive bans, without any exemptions, are planned for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Cancer Research UK and ASH said the poll of 3,600 people found that people in each nation backed a law banning smoking in all workplaces.

The figure for those in England who would support such a ban stood at 71%, with 71% also in favour in Scotland, 70% in Wales and 78% in Northern Ireland.

When asked specifically whether smoking should be banned in pubs and bars, 67% across the UK as a whole supported such a move.

In England support stood at 66%, 70% in Scotland, 67% in Wales and 74% in Northern Ireland.

The figure for England was up from 51% compared with another poll carried out last year.

The Government has persistently defended its plans for a partial ban in England despite widespread disapproval from charities and the medical profession.

But more fierce opposition is expected before legislation is eventually passed.

Professor Alex Markham, Cancer Research UK's chief executive, said: "Ministers have said again and again that public opinion in England does not support a comprehensive smoke-free law.

"This large and robust poll shows once again that this is just plain wrong.

"Ask the question any way you like - at least two-thirds of the public across the UK would support a ban, including pubs and bars.

"And the level of support in England is much the same as in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland."

Prof Markham said the "widely derided" exemptions for pubs and clubs must be dropped from the Health Bill.

"The experience of other countries shows that smoke-free legislation must be comprehensive if it is to be successful," he said.

Deborah Arnott, director of ASH, added: "This poll must surely be the final decisive piece of evidence that ministers need to abandon their unpopular and unworkable bodge for English pubs and membership clubs.

"There is no longer any significant public support for this idea, and a long litany of reasons - from industry, local Government and health experts - showing why it won't work.

"The time has come for Prime Minister Tony Blair to make his position clear.

"His New Year's resolution should be to announce that smoke-free legislation will be as comprehensive in England as in every other part of the UK.

"There would be nothing for the Government to lose from this decision and so much for all of us to gain.

"Ending smoking in all workplaces would leave an enduring legacy of which any Prime Minister could be proud."

Simon Clark, director of smokers' lobby group Forest, said: "Other polls, including research carried out by the Office for National Statistics, have consistently shown that when offered a range of options, including smoking and no-smoking rooms, an overwhelming majority are opposed to a total ban on smoking in pubs, clubs and bars.

"As one would expect from a poll commissioned by the anti-smoking lobby, this survey did not give people a range of options so they were unable to vote for the compromise solutions that, given a choice, most people support.

"The Government knows that what most people want is a choice of smoking and no-smoking facilities and better ventilation, enforced, if necessary, by legislation."

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