People who go into a smoky pub garden are taking a risk with their health, says Wes Streeting after the hospitality sector was excluded from an outdoor smoking ban.
The Health Secretary stressed the dangers of inhaling second-hand smoke and passive smoking.
“There’s often no choice for others on the receiving end of smoke,” he told Times Radio.
“And passive smoking, second-hand smoking is harmful. The principle people might want to adopt there is: If you can smell it, it’s there, it’s probably doing you some harm.
“We have decided to take action on schools, hospitals, playgrounds.
He added: “As for outdoor hospitality, it does just come back to this point about balance and there’ll be people who I suspect will say we’ve got the balance wrong and that we were wrong to listen to concerns of hospitality - that is a legitimate argument, it is a debate we’ve had inside Government about where we draw the line, how you get the choices and the trade-offs right.”
Asked if people who go to a pub garden are choosing to take the risk, he replied: “Effectively, yes, and we could have gone further in terms of saying, ‘well, in that case, we’re going to clamp down on outdoor hospitality spaces’, but we had to also weigh up the current pressures on that sector.”
Mr Streeting, MP for Ilford North, said the UK hospitality sector had taken a “battering” and it is “not the right time” to introduce a smoking ban in pub beer gardens.
“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,” he added.
Pub beer gardens, which had been considered to be included in the proposed ban on outdoor smoking, were excluded after the move was criticised by hospitality chiefs.
But Professor Sir Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, stressed the benefits of phasing out smoking.
He said: "A smoke-free country would prevent disease, disability and premature deaths for children born today and for people long into the future.”
Mr Streeting emphasised that a new licensing scheme and fines of £200 for shops found to be selling tobacco or vapes to people underage aimed to “come down like a ton of bricks on irresponsible retailers”.
The legislation, which prevents anyone born after January 1 2009 from legally smoking by gradually raising the age at which tobacco can be bought, was be introduced in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
It is hoped the “historic” legislation could “save thousands of lives and protect the NHS”, according to ministers.
The Bill will 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.
On marketing and the packaging of vape products, Mr Streeting added: “(This) is also about the marketing, the packaging, the flavours of vapes - this is a cynical industry that has sought to addict a new generation of children to nicotine.”
