English County Could Ban Smoking Outside Restaurants and Offices

A county in south England is aiming to become smoke-free by 2025, in a move that could see smoking banned outside restaurants and offices. 

Oxfordshire county council will be the first in England aiming to implement these stricter measures against smoking, with a goal to improve the health of its residents and reduce the prevalence of smoking in the adult population.

The county has launched a Tobacco Control Strategy, which will encourage smoke-free areas outside restaurants and public spaces in an attempt to make smoking seem “unusual”. It will encourage offices to help employees quit smoking, and aim to limit smoking outside offices. 

The county council, however, hasn’t committed to banning smoking in specific areas. Conservative Councillor Andrew McHugh proposed making all new pavement licenses smoke-free, but was rejected on the basis that implementing new controls after the easing of coronavirus restrictions was badly-timed. 

Although Oxfordshire has a lower rate of smoking than the rest of the country, the council is committed to reducing the percentage of smokers in the adult population to below 5 percent, reducing the prevalence of smoking among those with serious mental illness to below 20 percent, and reducing the prevalence of smoking at 15 to below 3 percent. 

A spokesperson from Oxfordshire county council said: “Oxfordshire has set itself an ambitious aim to be smoke-free by 2025. Creating healthy smoke-free environments – including considering proposals for hospitality outdoor seating to be 100 percent smoke-free – is just one small part of a wider range of county-wide plans.”

 “At present there are no timeframes for smoke-free pavement licensing proposals and nothing has yet been agreed,” they added. “Any decision on this would be ultimately the responsibility of our individual district councils in Oxfordshire.”