Most pubs across England and Wales will face a smoking ban in the next three years.
The government confirmed in the Queen's Speech at the State Opening of Parliament last week that a new health bill for England will implement a ban on smoking in all pubs which serve food.
Plans for alcohol disorder zones (ADZs), which will see pubs in troubled areas asked to pay an extra tax to cover clean-up costs, and ID cards, were also confirmed.
The Queen also announced plans for reforming the Welsh Assembly. Details of the reforms were not laid out during the ceremony but a White Paper due for publication in July is expected to devolve powers to Wales allowing it to implement its own all-out smoking ban.
This means licensees could be dealing with the impact of a smoking ban as early as 2008.
Response to the news was swift with licensees in uproar when it was confirmed a smoking ban was imminent. Danny Fox, at Rick's Bar in Greenwich, London, said: "All this is doing is taking the onus off the publican to provide a service. A lot of pubs will be forced to choose whether to have food or not.
"It would not be viable for me to go no-smoking. My premises are well ventilated and I have a no-smoking area and my customers don't complain."
Rob Clark, of the Cross Keys in Hull, has two separate rooms in the pub - one used as a restaurant and one as a bar. He said: "This is a grey area. If the government stops the smoking in the food side of the pub and keeps smoking in the bar side we may have a fighting chance."
Rob Crawford of EJ's Bar in Torquay, Devon, said: "I've surveyed my bar and found 90 per cent of the regular drinkers are smokers. These are my bread and butter and account for a high proportion of my sales."
However, Deborah Arnott, director of health charity ASH, welcomed the news. She said: "We have to persuade the government that the absurd exemptions for some pubs and clubs must be dropped from the final bill."
The government is also likely to introduce both its Violent Crime Reduction Bill and ID Cards Bill in the next few months. The violent crime bill includes measures to reduce binge-drinking and tackle yob behaviour in town centres.
Police will get more powers to deal with alcohol-fuelled disorder and there will be new measures aimed at dealing with problem pubs. If licensees do not prevent drunkenness and disorder an ADZ will be imposed and premises will have to pay an extra contribution to the costs of policing.
ID cards - which could be used as proof of age in pubs - will be introduced to help tackle illegal immigration and to support the work of the law enforcement agencies in fighting the threat of terrorism.