A further 18 pub companies have joined the smoking reduction initiative launched by the UK's big five last month.
Barracuda Group, Laurel Pub Company, Greene King, Wolverhampton & Dudley and Yates Group are among the companies that have added their support to the agreement to ban smoking at the bar by December 2005 and to expand no-smoking areas to cover 80% of trading space by December 2009.
The initiative was launched in September by Enterprise Inns, Punch Taverns, Scottish & Newcastle Pub Enterprises, Spirit and Mitchells & Butlers, who between them control one-third of Britain's pubs.
Roy Hayward, chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association welcomed the news. "The extension of the programme to a further 18 companies is extremely encouraging and genuinely demonstrates the industry's commitment to finding progressive and deliverable solutions to the smoking issue," he said.
But the anti-smoking lobby hit back at the move, saying it was a cynical bid to deflect the Government from legislating against smoking in the workplace. "The pub companies want to be shown to be doing something so they can head off a smoking ban," said Peter Maguire, deputy chairman on the British Medical Association's (BMA's) Board of Science. "Hospitality workers are not second-rate citizens and they should receive the same level of protection from smoke in the workplace as civil servants."
The Scottish Executive has closed its consultation on smoking and will reveal its smoking strategy before the end of the year. A day before the consultation closed (30 September), Dr Peter Terry from the BMA Scotland handed in 1,000 letters supporting a ban.