[Intl-tobacco] Downing Street blows cold over smoking ban (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Downing Street blows cold over smoking ban
by Marie Woolf / Political Correspondent
Source: Electronic Telegraph, Friday, 9/8/00

DOWNING Street risks enraging the health lobby after it emerged that Tony
Blair's officials intervened to dilute a ban on smoking at work.

Ministerial sources said last night that they had been worried that a code
of practice prepared by the Government's health and safety watchdog would
create red tape and millions of pounds of extra costs for business.

They asked the Health and Safety Commission if last minute changes could
be made before publication of the anti-smoking code to ease the pressure
on pubs, bars and restaurants. Discussions took place as late as Monday,
the day before the launch. Government sources said that Downing Street
favoured "a more voluntary approach".

In the final code, published on Tuesday, pubs, clubs and casinos were
given two years to comply with the new anti-smoking regulations for office
workers.  Ministers across government have been lobbied by the hospitality
industry which feared that the measures to cut passive smoking would cost
them millions of pounds.

News of Downing Street's intervention will infuriate cancer charities and
anti-smoking groups who say that the ban follows a commitment from the
Government in its White Paper, Smoking Kills.

Clive Bates, director of Action on Smoking and Health, said: "If they do a
U-turn on this White Paper commitment, the government will be sure to face
extreme condemnation from the health and medical organisations they have
been consulting on the health effects of passive smoking."

A Downing Street spokesman said that a balance had to be achieved between
desirable health objectives and being sensitive to the problems of
restricting business practice. He said: "The Health and Safety Commission
have revised the rules for pubs. It is completely normal for officials
here to find out what is happening in government departments and across
government."