Spark up!

Take your chance to respond to the smoking consultation, speak up for your pub and add your voice to The Publican's submission to the Department of Health.

There is no getting away from it now - some form of smoking ban in England and Wales will be coming in before the end of 2008. But the devil is in the detail, and now that the government has kicked off its two-month consultation on the issue, licensees have a chance to help shape the reform if they can shout loud enough.

The paper makes it clear that ministers believe the Smoking Charter and the British Beer & Pub Association's five-year plan on smoking, initiated last summer, have not gone far enough.

While the proposal in focus at the moment is a ban on smoking in pubs serving prepared food, don't be fooled into thinking that a blanket ban is off the agenda. Although it has not been included in the consultation, that is not to say it has been excluded altogether, and it is discussed in detail in the Regulatory Impact Assessment which accompanies the consultation.

There is no topic quite like smoking to spark up licensees' opinions - users of thepublican.com will know that the issue fosters comment like no other. Now The Publican wants to put all that comment to good use.

We want your answers to the questions that are most important to the pub trade. The Publican will collect your comments and put them together in one submission, which should paint a true picture of the strength of feeling on these issues from the licensees' point of view.

Click here​ to join The Publican's smoking submission now.​

To see the full consultation visit www.dh.gov.uk/consultations/liveconsultations.

If you wish to make your own response to the consultation, email fzbxrserryrtvfyngvba@qu.tfv.tbi.hx​ or write to Smoke-free Legislation Team, Health Improvement Directorate, Department of Health, Rm 707, Wellington House, 133-135 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8UG.