New nanny state attack on hospitality industry opposed by Number Ten

The Mail on Sunday reports that:

Downing Street has quashed an attempt by Government advisers to ban the smoking of cigarettes on pavements outside pubs and restaurants.

Readers will remember that last year anti-smoking campaigners led by ASH and a small group of like-minded peers tried to hijack the Business and Planning Bill that was being fast tracked through parliament to help reduce red tape for businesses following the first Covid lockdown.

Had they succeeded every pub, bar and restaurant in England would have been barred from allowing smoking in the new licensed pavement areas that were springing up around the country.

Instead the Government came up with a compromise that gave local authorities the power to make ‘no smoking’ a condition for pubs, bars etc being granted a licence for the new pavement areas but to date only half a dozen - including Manchester, Oxford and Newcastle - have done so.

(To put this in perspective, there are well over 300 local authorities in England.)

Undeterred ASH and their acolytes have continued to lobby for a ban and according to the MoS the idea now has the support of the Health Promotion Taskforce which is advising the Government but Number Ten aides (just as they did last year) have dismissed it as ‘illiberal’ and ‘nanny state’.

I’m sure this won’t be the last we hear of the proposal but it’s good to know there is still some resistance to unnecessary regulations such as this in the corridors of power.

You can read the MoS report here. It includes quotes from Deborah Arnott of ASH and me.

PS. I shall be talking about this on GB News at 4.20pm.