Research on smoking

People want smokefree England

• More than three out of four people in England already choose not to smoke (24% of adults in England are smokers)
• Nearly three quarters of those who do smoke say that they want to give up

An Office for National Statistics survey released 6 July 2006 (with fieldwork taking place in Oct/Nov 2005) found:

• 91% of people favoured smoking restrictions in restaurants, 86% supported restrictions at work, 65% supported restrictions in pubs
• 22% of pub goers said they would go more often if smoking restrictions were in place. Women were more likely to say this (26%) than men (17%).  Only 4% of pub goers would go less often
• Support for restrictions in indoor shopping centres (87%), indoor sports and leisure centres (93%) and indoor areas at railway and bus stations (83%)

Employers want a smokefree England

A survey of 501 business decision makers in England conducted by Continental Research in August 2006 showed overwhelming support amongst employers for smokefree:

• 91% agreed that people at work have the right not to breathe in other workers’ smoke
• 79% said they would support a law which made all workplaces smokefree
• 83% agree that there should be no smoking in all enclosed workplaces and public places
• 58% felt creating a smokefree workplace would have a positive effect on staff health, rising to 73% amongst respondents from the hospitality industry

The top three benefits of smokefree legislation identified by businesses were:

1. Health benefits (26%)
2. Better working environment (14%)
3. Cleaner/hygiene (14%)