UK: Scottish & Newcastle UK's director of national sales says the smoking ban will affect less the English pubs than the Scottish ones

English pubs are better placed for the smoking ban than their Scottish and Irish counterparts - but hosts must prepare now. That is the message from Scottish & Newcastle UK's director of national sales, Les Murphy, who said he "genuinely believed England will be ahead of the game", The Morning Advertiser published October 12.

He told the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers' annual conference that English pubs have greater provision of food, more smoking areas, and have benefited from seeing the bans introduced in Scotland and Ireland.

Pub companies are making better provisions for the ban in England, said Murphy.

At the event in Bristol, Murphy said he hoped councils in England would learn from Scotland, where "confusion is rife" about how to deal with the smoking ban.