NewsDigest

Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan will be answering questions on the smoking ban in London next week.

He will talk alongside chief medical officer Tony Jewell during the media briefing to discuss the Welsh ban, which begins on 2 April. "The legislation will be a milestone for public health and is viewed as the most important single measure that the Welsh Assembly can take to improve the health of the nation and reduce health inequalities," said a Welsh Assembly spokeswoman.

Punch Taverns is reported to be preparing the sale of 1,000 bottom-end wet-led pubs ahead of the forthcoming smoking ban. Admiral Inns, InDeed Group, the pub company led by Peter Brook and backed by Dawnay Day, and London Town, the aim-listed pub operator, are the companies tipped to be among the possible buyers. The package, which is expected to be marketed by PC Hansen, could fetch as much as £400m.

A woman who has been a licensee for 43 years has been forced to step down after she failed her National Certificate of Personal Licence Holders exam. Daphne Cutten, 74, has been replaced as licensee of the Murrell Arms in Barnham, West Sussex, by her daughter after failing the test.

The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) has launched a new website celebrating the most unique pub interiors in Britain. The site,

www.heritagepub.co.uk, includes 254 interiors, from Art Nouveau to High Gothic. It also has a 'Pubs in Peril' list detailing sites under threat from redevelopment.

The number of pubs in the UK will fall by 2% to 56,865 between 2006 and 2011, with smaller wet-led pubs failing to adapt to the smoking ban. That is the forecast from the UK Public House Development Report, published this week by Market & Business Development. The report expects annual growth rates to fluctuate between 1% and 3% until 2001.