One in five English pubs will give up serving food to get round an impending anti-smoking law, according to a survey today, as the British government defended its decision not to impose a total ban on lighting up.
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt will introduce the bill, which would prevent smoking in restaurants and bars where food is served, to parliament later today.
But to the dismay of anti-smoking campaigners and trade unions, private clubs will be exempt and pubs serving no food will be allowed to choose whether to allow smoking or not.
The bill was finalised after days of ministerial wrangling. Ms Hewitt had initially suggested a ban in virtually all enclosed public places, mirroring laws introduced in Ireland last year. But she also wanted to give bars and restaurants the right to have a sectioned-off smoking room where bar staff would not be present.
Other ministers argued that even that was going too far while Ms Hewitt's predecessor John Reid, had fought for his own, less stringent, proposals to be retained.
"The bill that I'm introducing today is going to ban smoking ... in virtually every enclosed public space and workplace," Ms Hewitt told BBC Radio.
She conceded that some cabinet ministers would have preferred a complete ban but said the pubs opting out would be "a very small exception indeed." That is the "disadvantage of this particular proposal," she said.
A survey by industry magazine The Publicansaid that of the country's 42,000 pubs, 20 percent would give up providing food, to avoid the smoking ban.
A ban on smoking in all enclosed public places will take force in Scotland next March and Northern Ireland has also agreed a ban. England's will start in 2007 and be reviewed three years later.
The government's Conservative opponents said the exemptions would hit the health of the poor worst as bars not serving food were to be found disproportionately in deprived areas.