After years of challenges, our pubs are already clinging on by a thread. The latest leaked reports that the Government may ban smoking outdoors would be another nail in the coffin.

The 2006 indoor smoking ban helped contribute to the vast number of pub closures across the country. Smoking is much more common among pub-goers than the rest of the population, so when the indoor smoking ban was introduced, pub attendance among smokers declined significantly. Before the ban, 54 percent of pub customers were smokers, but this dropped to 38 percent after the ban. There was also a net reduction of 74 percent in smokers’ visits to pubs.

As a result, British hospitality has suffered immensely. A quarter of pubs in the UK have closed since 2000, totalling more than 13,000 locations. Four out of five people have witnessed pub closures within five miles of their home. By 2022, the number of pubs in England and Wales had dropped to below 40,000.

We are losing such an integral part of our communities, and banning smokers from outdoor spaces would only drive more customers away. Pubs are more than just places to drink.

They are social spaces, centres of communities, and a vital part of British culture. According to the Government’s own impact assessment, a ban on smoking outdoors would almost certainly lead to further pub closures and job losses, compounding cost of living hardships much of the public know too well.

Despite these hurdles, pubs have created various imaginative ways for customers to smoke. Money has been spent on smoking shelters and doing up pub gardens. Alas, the Government just has to be a fun sponge. Pubs are already on their knees. A ban on smoking outside would inevitably force many to go under.

Whilst the intention may be to protect public health, authoritarian measures like this are simply not based on any evidence. Smoking rates in the UK are already plummeting, a trend not driven by draconian measures, but by smokers choosing safer alternatives to combustible cigarettes.

In 2022, 12.9 percent of adults smoked cigarettes, which is the lowest proportion since records began. The rise of vapes, snus, heated tobacco and other reduced harm nicotine products have played a crucial role in the decline of smoking rates, and will continue to do so if the Government lets them.

Sweden is the perfect example of this harm reduction model. According to the Public Health Agency of Sweden, as of 2022, the country’s smoking rate has now fallen to 5.6 percent. This is the lowest smoking rate of any country in the world.

They did not achieve this by imposing nanny state measures like a ban on outdoor smoking, but by allowing adults to use healthier nicotine products.

Snus, a smokeless tobacco product, is incredibly popular in Sweden, and is estimated to be 90 percent less harmful than traditional cigarettes. It is no coincidence that Sweden has one of the lowest rates of tobacco-related disease globally.

Protecting public health is important, but nonsensical puritan policies like this one do more harm than good. British pubs are an internationally recognised cornerstone of our culture.

We should not let ourselves become misguided by the allure of interventionist policies, and unintentionally harm one of our most beloved institutions.