The long kiss goodbye

Most tobacco advertising was finally outlawed on Valentine's Day. Simon Greaves outlines the impact of the new rules - and asks if we could eventually see a ban on smoking in public

A convoluted story came to an end this Valentine's Day when tobacco advertising became illegal in the UK. What had started as a pledge in the 1997 Labour manifesto took more than five years to come to pass, taking the form of EU directive, private members bill and government bill. What caused such delays and what does the future hold for smoking as a public health issue?

The measures in the Tobacco Advertising and Promotions Act 2002 were welcomed by campaigners as firm but fair. Covering press and billboard advertising, the ban is but the first of several stages. In May, in-pack promotion schemes and sports sponsorship will be ditched. Formula 1 sponsorship however - seen as a prize trophy by many campaigners - will only end in July 2005.

Drawn out

The drawn out passage of the ban from intention to inception precedes the 1997 manifesto commitment. In 1989, the European Commission proposed a draft directive banning direct advertising. Throughout the early 1990s a blocking minority of countries in the Council of Ministers - the UK included - consistently opposed any sort of total ban. Instead in 1994 the Conservative government agreed a new package of measures on advertising and promotion with the tobacco industry. These, however, remained purely voluntary.

The election of Labour in 1997 was an important factor in turning a blocking minority into a winning majority. The resulting Tobacco Advertising Directive, passed in 1998, required all member states to introduce domestic legislation to phase out tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. The UK government did just that, bringing forward regulations a year later.

Unfortunately for most, a campaign led by the tobacco industry and the German government led to the EU directive being annulled by the European Court of Justice in October 2000 on a technicality. Though a commission directive has since been introduced, it only applies to "cross-border" advertising, far less rigorous than was originally proposed.

Undaunted, the government introduced the Tobacco Promotion and Advertising Bill two months after the ECJ decision. Again hopes of a ban were to prove illusory as the dissolution of Parliament combined with Conservative intransigence to result in the bill being dropped.

The unexplained absence of any mention of a ban in the 2001 Queen's Speech led campaigners to question the depth of government commitment. In June, SNP health spokeswoman Nicola Sturgeon introduced a private member's bill to Holyrood that would have brought about a Scotland-specific advertising ban. Such moves were, however, to prove unnecessary.Lord Clement-Jones, Liberal Democrat health spokesman, introduced a bill that was "almost identical" to the earlier government effort. Responding to pressure from within and outside Westminster, the government adopted the bill once it had passed its Lords stages. Receiving Royal Assent in November 2002, the intention at last became an act.

Smoked out

While the government have said they are against a ban on smoking in public places, an increasing number of voices are calling for just such a move.A ban on smoking in public places, a suggestion that would have been ridiculed 10 years ago, has been proposed by entities more diverse than the British Medical Association.

At the end of January the Minister for Health in Ireland announced an outright ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants by January 1, 2004. The rationale behind the move was to restrict the exposure of workers to hazardous tobacco smoke. While the move provoked controversy, a poll released subsequently confirmed that almost 60 per cent of the population were in favour of the move.

Also in January, the National Assembly for Wales voted 39 to 10 in favour of a motion calling for the prohibition of smoking in public places. While purely symbolic - such legislation would exceed the Assembly's remit - the move was nonetheless significant. The motion was tabled by assembly members from each of the four main parties in Wales. As such, it was a united call for a slot in the Westminster timetable.

The House of Commons has not been deaf to such calls. An early day motion tabled by Labour MP Kevin Barron in July 2002 called for restrictions on smoking in the workplace; the EDM attracted 121 signatures. In this session, a party colleague David Taylor MP called for "further action" against passive smoking in public places; so far it has attracted 91 signatures. Both MPs admitted to pH7 that they would favour a ban on smoking in public.

Recently banned in Norway and soon to be banned in Ireland, calls for an end to smoking in public places have become increasingly vocal. As pressure mounts will the government give way?