The British government plans to impose a sweeping public smoking ban across England and Wales within two years and will consider curbs on television advertising of "junk food" aimed at children.

Food retailers and manufacturers will be expected to come up with a clear labeling system for healthy and unhealthy foods.

"All government departments will be smoke-free," Health Secretary John Reid told parliament on Tuesday.

"All enclosed public places and workplaces ... will be smoke-free. All restaurants will be smoke-free. All pubs and bars preparing and serving food will be smoke-free."

A government policy paper on public health said other pubs and bars will be free to choose whether to allow smoking, as will private clubs.

Officials said elements of the ban would be introduced from 2006 with the full embargo, which Reid said would cover "90-odd percent" of bars and restaurants, in place by the end of 2008.

Last week, the Scottish parliament decided to ban smoking in public buildings from 2006.

Shares in pub groups and tobacco firms tumbled even before the official announcement.

Britain's biggest pubs operator Enterprise Inns was hardest hit. Its shares lost 3.8 percent.

Shares in tobacco firms Gallaher and Imperial Tobacco fell 2 percent, while pub operators Mitchells & Butler, Punch Taverns and Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries slid over 3 percent.

The wide-ranging White Paper targeted rising obesity in Britain, sexually transmitted infections and unhealthy workplaces as well as tobacco.

Reid said the government would ask media regulator Ofcom to consult on advertising to children on television adding: "we will work with the industry to limit other forms of advertising to children."

Further restrictions on tobacco advertising will be imposed, along with graphic picture warnings on cigarette packets.

"We will support Ofcom to strengthen the rules of broadcast advertising of alcohol, particularly to protect the under-18s," Reid added.

To tackle Britain's rising obesity problem, the government will work with food manufacturers and supermarkets to introduce by early 2006, a clear coding system for foods so people can understand at a glance what is healthy and what should be eaten only in moderation.

"We will develop a simple code for processed food to indicate fat, sugar and salt content for shoppers," Reid said.

The British Beer and Pub Association said the government's blueprint could drive bars away from serving food, back to being drinking-only dens as most profit still came from alcohol.

"With concern about binge drinking at its height it seems an extraordinary contradiction to introduce a policy designed to drive us to drink," said the group's Mark Hastings.

Reference Source 89
November 17, 2004

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