SMOKING will be forbidden in pubs in England and Wales within five years, even if the Government does not impose a statutory ban as agreed in Scotland yesterday.

Brewers have also promised to end smoking in eating areas within a year and to stop customers smoking at the bar two years after that. At least 80 per cent of pubs and bars would be smoke-free by 2008, under proposals from the Beer and Pub Association.

The plea for extra time to implement voluntary restrictions on smoking is a desperate attempt to obtain a temporary exemption from plans, disclosed by The Times last week, for a strict new licensing system on smoking in any enclosed public place.

The White Paper on public health is expected to be published next Tuesday, although John Reid, the Health Secretary, and the Prime Minister have not made a final decision about smoking restrictions.

The association, which represents two thirds of Britain’s 60,000 pubs, has offered Mr Reid a firm timetable to reduce smoking in their premises and industry leaders privately accept that it will be eradicated in pubs altogether by 2009.

Mark Hastings, a director of the association, wrote to Mr Reid after being alarmed by last week’s disclosures in The Times. He said that a system allowing local authorities to issue smoking licences to pubs, restaurants and workplaces, would create confusion and unnecessary bureaucracy.

“Some local authorities will apply different levels of control, creating different market conditions both within and between areas. This will cause unwelcome migrations of trade and market distortions,” his letter said.

The big brewers insist that they are not willing to “die in the ditch for the tobacco industry”, not least because of other pressing public policy issues such as 24-hour licensing or penalties for binge drinking and antisocial behaviour outside their premises.

But the pub chains are worried about figures showing that bar sales in the Republic of Ireland have fallen by a fifth since a smoking ban was imposed. They say the prospect of a “postcode lottery” depending on local authorities’ licensing regimes could bankrupt many landlords. “We have had smoking in British pubs for more than 400 years. It is reasonable to give us four more years to end it,” a leading figure in the brewing industry said.

Whitehall officials confirmed yesterday that Mr Reid was attracted by the voluntary approach proposed for pubs, as well as the option of phasing in any ban. Downing Street is also worried about imposing “nanny state” solutions on voters and has argued for a flexible solution.

One proposal discussed in Whitehall over the past week would allow smoking to continue without licences under strict conditions on ventilation or protecting children and bar staff. Local authorities could then issue enforcement notices against premises breaking the rules.

But other ministers are advocating a harder line on smoking in this month’s White Paper on public health. They cite the row in 1997 which followed Bernie Ecclestone’s success pleading Formula One exemption from rules preventing tobacco sponsorship in sport.

Yesterday’s announcement about Scotland’s plans to ban smoking in pubs has piled further pressure on the Government to follow suit in England and Wales. Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, is in favour of an outright ban on smoking in workplaces, including bars and restaurants.

COUNTING THE COST

• The anti-smoking group Ash claims tobacco kills about 114,000 people in Britain each year
• Smoking causes 80 per cent of lung cancer deaths, 80 per cent of deaths from bronchitis and emphysema and 17 per cent of heart disease deaths
• Within 10-15 years of stopping, an ex-smoker’s risk of lung cancer is only slightly greater than that of a non-smoker
• On average, women smokers go through the menopause up to two years earlier than non-smokers
• First pictorial record of smoking was found on Guatemalan pottery from AD 600 to 1000
• Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake brought tobacco to Britain in the 16th century

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