SMOKING will be outlawed in pubs, offices and restaurants unless they meet strict licensing conditions, according to Cabinet policy papers circulating among ministers.

Licences are likely to operate in a similar way to those for selling alcohol. Local authorities, some of which are pressing for the right to introduce bans, would be allowed to issue as many or as few as they wished.

Anybody applying for a licence to allow smoking in a “confined public space” would have to meet a number of conditions, including the protection of children from contact with smoke and minimising the health risk to employees.

In practice, the proposals are likely to mean that any restaurant or pub open to children would be denied a licence. Smoking in areas where staff work, such as bars, would also be banned.

However, smoking rooms in office buildings could continue, and licences might also be granted for well-ventilated sections of pubs, clubs or restaurants whose owners could guarantee that children would not be present.

If approved by the Cabinet, the measure will be included in the Public Health White Paper this month. Legislation would not reach the statute books until after the next election.The proposal is intended as a compromise between advocates of an outright ban in public and those alarmed at “nanny state” solutions.

John Reid, the Health Secretary, who sent details of the plan to colleagues on the Cabinet Domestic Affairs Committee last week, has said that the status quo on smoking cannot continue and that “we have decided to take action on this”.

Ministers accept that there is overwhelming evidence of the dangers of passive smoking.

Mr Reid has argued against an outright ban and said this year that smoking was one of the few pleasures for the poor on sink estates and in workingmen’s clubs. The Health Secretary, who recently kicked his own 60-a-day habit, has said that the Government should help people to make “informed choices” about their behaviour.

However, in an interview last week he made a distinction between the rights of children and the right of adults to harm themselves if they do not harm others. This philosophy is reflected in measures such as banning “unreasonable” chastisement of children and the Public Health White Paper’s attitude to junk food and obesity. Ministers are expected to propose restricting advertising for unhealthy products to times when children will not be watching.

Officials emphasised last night that the smoking policy would dovetail with plans to loosen the law on alcohol licensing and gambling.

One senior source said: “It will be up to councils whether to have 24-hour pubs or casinos. We are giving them the power to decide, in consultation with their local communities, exactly what they want. It should be exactly the same on determining smoking regimes.”

Many of England’s biggest cities and nearly 50 local authorities want to follow the lead set by the Republic of Ireland and New York by banning smoking in public places.

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, effectively outlawed smoking in black cabs and minicabs yesterday by announcing that drivers would not be disciplined for refusing to carry passengers who lit up on a journey.

“I don’t believe it is right that they should run the health risk of having to breathe in somebody else’s smoke,” he said.

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