To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the likely effect of the smoking ban on (a) the number of pubs operating in England and (b) employment in that sector. (150754)

An assessment of the costs and benefits of smokefree legislation is set out in the final Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) that was published by the Department in December 2006.

Partial RIAs were included within the “Consultation on the Smokefree Elements of the Health Improvement and Protection Bill” published in 2005 and in “Smoke-free Premises and Vehicles: Consultation on proposed regulations to be made under powers in the Health Bill” published in 2006. Both consultation exercises invited stakeholders to provide comments on the partial RIA as well as the proposals in the consultation. Responses from stakeholders assisted the Department in producing the final RIA.

All documents referred to are available in the Library.