London: In a surprising development, the British government is reportedly planning to bring tougher anti-smoking measures in pub gardens and outdoor restaurants as well as hospitals, universities and sports grounds. Despite a ban on smoking inside pubs, UK's National Health Service (NHS) spends over 2.5 million pounds on smoking-related illnesses in England alone.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday confirmed that he supported the idea of imposing a ban on smoking in certain outdoor spaces, including pub gardens, as a way of reducing the pressure on the state-run NHS and the cost to taxpayers. "I want us to move to a smoke-free environment, want to reduce those preventable deaths. I want to reduce the burden on the NHS, desperately needed," he said in Paris while visiting French President Emmanuel Macron.
Starmer's Labour government, which was elected in July, has already said it will reintroduce the former Conservative administration's legislation to outlaw the sale of tobacco to anyone born on or after January 2009. Although it did not become a law due to an early election, it has proposed to raise the legal age for purchasing cigarettes by one year every year until it is illegal for the whole population.
80,000 deaths every year, says British PM
While precise details would be worked out later, Starmer asserted that he wanted to reduce deaths from preventable diseases. "My starting point on this is to remind everybody that over 80,000 people lose their lives every year because of smoking... this is a preventable series of deaths and we've got to take action to reduce the burden on the NHS and the taxpayer," he said.
However, Britain's hospitality industry warned a stricter smoking ban could force some businesses to close. "A ban on smoking in outdoor spaces comes with the prospect of serious economic harm to hospitality venues," said Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of trade body UKHospitality. "This ban would not only affect pubs and nightclubs, but hotels, cafes and restaurants."
Smoking in the UK
Britain banned smoking in almost all enclosed public spaces, including bars and workplaces, in 2007. While the number of smokers has declined in the UK by two-thirds since the 1970s, 13 per cent - 6.4 million people - of the population still smoke, as per official figures. The minimum age for smoking was raised from 16 to 18 in 2007.
Smokers in Britain are much lower than other European countries such as Italy, Germany and France, where between 18-23 per cent of adults smoke, according to OECD figures. Despite this, the government estimates that smoking costs Britain's health services 17 billion pounds ($22.37 billion) a year.
(with inputs from agencies)
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