Three-quarters of the public would support a smoking ban outside hospitals, but are more divided on it applying to pub gardens
The government is currently considering bringing in a ban on smoking in outdoor public areas, including in pub gardens, outside hospitals and in sports grounds. It is the latest in a series of policies designed to tackle smoking and tobacco use, which remains the UK’s largest preventable cause of death.
Labour’s proposals have received support from public health experts, while drawing concerns from those in the hospitality industry, particularly publicans who believe they would noticeably suffer. But what do the British public think about the proposals?
In general, the public tend to support a ban on smoking in outdoor public areas, but they also make distinctions between where the ban applies.
Banning smoking outside hospitals, for instance, would be supported by three-quarters of Britons (76%), including being strongly supported by six in ten (58%), while facing opposition from only one-fifth of the public (21%). Stopping smoking in sports grounds holds a similar level of endorsement, supported by seven in ten Britons (72%) and opposed by 22%.
A ban on smoking in pub gardens, though, is more divisive. For the half of Britons (51%) who say they would support such a ban, there are 43% of the public who are opposed to such a restriction.
Of course, support for these bans are not uniform across the public; some groups are more in favour, while others – particularly Reform UK voters and, unsurprisingly, smokers – are less supportive.
Nonetheless, in some cases, it’s largely just strength of support that differs. Smoking outside hospitals holds clear support among almost all groups of the public – including eight in ten Labour and Lib Dem voters (80-82%), three-quarters of Conservatives (74%) and two-thirds of Reform UK voters (64%). Even among smokers themselves, there is a near-even split between the 47% who favour such a ban and the 49% who are opposed.
It is with pubs where the divide is more meaningful. While a clear majority of non-smokers (57%) favour a ban on smoking in pub gardens, only one in ten smokers (10%) agree. And different voting groups come down on different sides of the divide. More than half of Conservative (54%), Labour (62%) and Lib Dem (61%) voters would support pub gardens going smoke free, but only three in ten (30%) Reform UK voters feel the same, with two-thirds (68%) opposed to the idea.
Is support for an outdoor ban surprising?
But how surprised should we be at the British public tending to support a ban that has been termed ‘authoritarian’ by its critics?
Massive support exists for current restrictions on smoking, with nine in ten Britons (88%) supportive of the ban on smoking inside public buildings which came into force in 2007 (2006 in Scotland). Such an endorsement is overwhelming across all segments of the British public, with even seven in ten smokers (70%) in favour of it. Just one in eleven Britons (9%) and one in four smokers (25%) stand opposed.
There’s also the fact that smoking today is very much a minority pursuit, only one in ten Britons (10%) say they currently smoke, with the same number saying they vape (though only four in ten (40%) smokers are vapers and vice versa).
Younger Britons are more likely to report currently smoking, with one in eight (12%) 18-24 year olds saying they do, compared to 7% of over 65s. But young Britons are also the most likely to say they have never smoked – eight out of ten 18-24 year olds (81%) tell us they have never done so, compared to only 44% of over 65s, with half of the older generation (49%) saying they have previously given up.
There is also little doubt among the British public about the potential harms of smoking, with just 3% of Britons believing that cigarettes are not associated with causing cancer.
With so few Britons currently smoking, three in ten (30%) having explicitly given up the habit, and a near-universal belief that smoking has negative health effects, there are few invested in smoking being particularly widespread.
This perhaps helps explain why there is also clear support for wider proposals intended to tackle the risks associated with smoking. Six in ten Britons (61%) support the last government’s policy of attempting to phase out smoking by banning it only for those born in 2009 or later, against only 27% of the public and half of smokers (48%) who are opposed to such a policy.
There is the same level of support (61%) and only slightly more opposition (33%) for an outright ban on the sale of cigarettes. Naturally, more smokers (71%) are against cigarettes becoming an illegal drug, but a quarter (25%) still say they would favour them being outlawed.
Banning vaping attracts a little less support, with only 54% of the public in favour, though eight in ten Britons (81%) would be happy to see the sale of disposable vapes banned, included six in ten vapers (58%).
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Photo: Getty
