The UK Government has rolled back on its plans to ban smoking in beer gardens (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Labour Government scraps plan to ban smoking in beer gardens

by · Daily Record

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The Labour Government has scrapped plans to ban smoking in beer gardens. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said last month that the Government was considering banning smoking in outdoor hospitality venues

But Health Secretary Wes Streeting said on Tuesday that the hospitality industry has “taken a real battering in recent years” and it is not “the right time” to ban smoking outside pubs. Vaping and smoking in playgrounds and outside schools could also be banned as part of the Government's plans.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will be introduced to the House of Commons on Tuesday. It will apply across the UK but the Scottish Parliament will also scrutinise it. The Bill also aims to create a smokefree generation by annually increasing the legal smoking age.

Streeting told LBC Radio the Bill will help “clamp down on the scourge of youth vaping”. He said: “We’re also proposing to regulate vapes – vaping outside schools and playgrounds – as part of a wider package to clamp down on the scourge of youth vaping, which will include licensing for retailers, enforcement and also clamping down on the marketing and vaping and advertising and packaging and flavours of vapes to kids.

“Taken together, I think this is a sensible package to tackle what is still one of Britain’s biggest killers on smoking, but also to clamp down on the scourge of use of vaping.”

He told Times Radio the suggestion there would be a smoking ban outside pubs came from a “leak”.

He said: “One of the happy consequences of a Government leak, which is exactly what happened over the course of the summer in terms of the discussions we were having on outdoor hospitality, is that we were effectively able to start the debate on it and start the consultation on it early.

“One of the things that we have to weigh up – and we’ll be weighing up when it comes to public health – the upside benefits in terms of benefits to public health and any downside risks, particularly in terms of people’s liberties and livelihoods.

“And I think it is no secret that UK hospitality has had a battering in recent years with the pandemic, and also the challenges in the economy and in people’s pockets means that there’s an ongoing challenge. So we judged that on balance, this wasn’t the right time to go ahead with an outdoor ban, so we’re not going to be consulting on that.”

Scottish politics

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will prevent anyone born after January 1 2009 from legally smoking by gradually raising the age at which tobacco can be bought.

The Bill will also introduce restrictions on vape advertising and sponsorship, as well as restricting flavours, displays and the packaging of e-cigarettes to reduce their appeal to children and young people.

Disposable vapes will be banned from June 1 2025 under separate environmental legislation.

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