Industry leaders blast ‘clueless' Wanless over smoking report

08 March 2004
Industry leaders blast ‘clueless' Wanless over smoking report

Hospitality leaders have branded Derek Wanless, author of the Wanless Report, "clueless" and "ill-informed" after he accused the industry of being too slow in introducing voluntary smoke-free policies.

The report, published last week, called for a wider ban on smoking, accusing the Government of making "unambitious" efforts to cut the nation's habit. It also blamed the hospitality industry for making "limited" progress in introducing voluntary smoke-free policies into pubs and restaurants.

Nick Bish, chairman of the industry's Charter Group for a voluntary smoking policy, countered that Wanless had "failed to do his homework" when discussing the hospitality industry's contribution on the issue.

He said: "Mr Wanless appears just to have taken the anti-smoking views at face value and reproduced them in his report.

"He hits out at our industry's ‘particularly slow' progress in introducing smoke-free policies, but makes no mention of the fact that we have recently doubled the proportion of non-smoking areas in pubs.

"As far as I am aware, he made no effort to establish the industry facts before coming to a very one-sided conclusion."

n The 221-page report, called Securing Good Health for the Whole Population, calls for tough action to cut the number of smokers in the UKfrom one in four to one in nine of the adult population.

It claims that the number of people giving up over the past decade has stalled at 27% of the adult population.

The report also tackles obesity, stating that more than half of the population in England is currently overweight or obese. It urges the Government to set new targets for cutting weight problems, and advises a reduction in salt in manufactured foods.

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