The U.K. government is considering banning smoking outside bars and pubs in an effort to improve public health.
Lighting up indoors at pubs, workplaces and cafes was largely outlawed back in 2007, relegating smokers to outdoor smoking areas.
Confirming an exclusive report in The Sun, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday the country has “got to take action” to limit the burden of smoking on the public purse.
He told reporters on Thursday: “My starting point on this is to remind everybody that over 80,000 people lose their lives every year because of smoking.
“That is a preventable death, it’s a huge burden on the [public health system] and, of course, it is a burden on the taxpayer.”
He said that more details about the plans would be revealed in time, but for now confirmed the government was “going to take decisions in this space.”
Smoking costs the U.K. more than £21 billion ($27.65 billion) a year in lost productivity, social care costs and direct costs to the public health system, according to campaign group Action on Smoking and Health.
It’s been a key target of public health policy for decades, and was a major focus for the country’s last govenment.
Former prime minister Rishi Sunak previously announced a plan to dramatically reduce rates of smoking among adults to 5% or less by 2030.
This ‘Smokefree’ Britain roadmap included a landmark bill to prevent anyone born after 2009 from ever legally buying tobacco products.
The new Labour government has pledged to keep the bill, which will have to make its way through the Houses of Parliament before it can become law.
Members of the hospitality industry have raised concerns a smoking ban outside pubs could hurt their businesses.
Pub owner Lisa Burrage, 55, told the BBC that it should be up to businesses, rather than government, to choose whether to allow smoking outside their establishments.
“This will be just another hurdle we have to face in hospitality and one we can do without,” she said.
But others have questioned how much impact such a ban would have on sales. Founder of popular pub chain JD Wetherspoon, Tim Martin, told the broadcaster: “I don’t think it will have a big effect on our business, one way or another.”
However, chief executive of rival high street bar chain Revolution Bars Rob Pitchers said he wasn’t sure smoking outside pubs was “prevalent enough to be putting any strain at all” on the public health system.
Health campaigners have largely welcomed the proposed policy. But some have urged lawmakers to consider any unintended consequences it might have.
“The Government is catching up with what the public expects, and that’s not to have to breathe in tobacco smoke in places ilike children’s play areas and seating areas outside pubs, restaurants and cafes,” said ASH CEO Deborah Arnott in an emailed statement.
“However, it’s also important to ensure that there are still outdoor areas where people who smoke can smoke in the open air, rather than inside their homes.”
