Reported smoking ban in pub gardens and outdoor venues being considered by Government

As readers may have seen in national media, The Sun reported earlier that secret Whitehall papers have confirmed that the Government plans to extend the indoor smoking ban to restrict smoking outdoors including in pub gardens, outdoor restaurants and open-air spaces at clubs and pavements next to both, as well as outside hospitals and sports grounds.

According to The Sun shisha bars will also be affected by the new rules and vape-free areas are mentioned, but the restrictions would not cover private homes, nor large open ­spaces such as parks or streets.

The Sun reported that this plan is proposed despite some opposition from within the Government. A consultation will be launched over the outdoors smoking ban.

The BBC reported that the Department of Health and Social Care have said it did not comment on leaks but was considering a range of measures to “finally make Britain smoke free.” A spokesperson added “smoking claims 80,000 lives a year, puts huge pressure on our NHS, and costs taxpayers billions.  We are determined to protect children and non-smokers from the harms of second-hand smoking”.

Subsequently, this afternoon Sky News reported that the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer confirmed the proposal following the leaked report by The Sun, Sir Kier is reported to have stated:

“My starting point on this is to remind everyone that over 80,000 people lose their lives every year to smoking, that’s a preventable death, it’s a huge burden on the NHS and of course on the taxpayer.

“So, yes we are going to take decisions in this space. More details will be revealed but this is a preventable cause of deaths and we’ve got to take the action to reduce the burden on the NHS and reduce the burden on the taxpayer.”

Clearly the proposal is far from definitive at this stage, and it is reported that the measures, of which full details are still unknown, are being proposed as part of the tougher version of the previous Government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which was dropped before the last election.

Nonetheless, if the proposal became law, as with when the indoor smoking ban came into effect, it will have significant implications for the hospitality industry including pubs, bars and restaurants with beer gardens and external areas currently used by customers to smoke.

As you will be aware, licensees do already have a common law right to ban smoking in their outside areas/beer gardens, and indeed some already do, however that right is at their discretion. These restrictions could create a blanket ban on outdoor smoking within relevant premises.

Many pubs will be concerned about the economic impact and that some customers who smoke may well be put off going out at all, preferring to stay at home altogether.

For premises, it may be challenging to police. Licensees would have to adapt their smoking and management policies to stop customers smoking in outside areas, which might involve additional staff monitoring on top of their existing obligations, as well as other measures such as no smoking signage within beer gardens.

The question then becomes where will your customers now go to smoke? Inevitably customers that smoke are going to smoke elsewhere, perhaps in the street outside which may be near local resident’s houses or flats. One doesn’t need to be Nostradamus to envisage this may open up its own can of worms with complaints from residents about the noise generated by smokers and indeed smoke entering residents’ properties through open windows, combined with the possibility of formal enforcement action against licensees in locations outside their control.

You may find customers going in and out of the premises more frequently to smoke and this may result in operational adjustments in terms of monitoring or searching, particularly if your licence premises has a condition that customers are not allowed to take drinks off the premises for example, or where your licence has a last entry and it is not caveated to allow an exception for existing customers who have stepped outside to smoke and then re-enter the premises.

Such a ban could also result in crowds congregating at the last moment before entering pubs or football stadiums for one last cigarette, which may itself lead to issues of nuisance or even public safety.

As with all such things, the devil will be in the detail as to how the restrictions are implemented and clearly any proposal should be thought through very carefully in terms of its impact on hospitality businesses from an economic and operational point of view and whether such a ban would achieve its aim of making Britain smoke free or whether it will simply relocate smoking elsewhere such as on streets and in homes.

We will of course keep you updated once any formal proposal is released by the Government.

Access more articles on managing smoking on your premises here. Please also feel free to contact any of our solicitors for further advice here.