Industry regulation: Legislation

In England a ban on smoking in enclosed spaces will come into force on 1 July 2007. This includes pubs, restaurants and private members clubs. 
 
All of our managed pubs already operate a no smoking at the bar policy, no smoking at back of house areas, and over 70% have no smoking trading areas.

We have also been preparing our leased and tenanted pubs for this change and recognise they need to be implementing action plans now and not waiting until the smoking restrictions are enforced by law.

Every Punch retailer in England and Wales has been given a free smoking policy pack. This provides them with everything that they need to set and implement a smoking policy, including customer signage, staff notices, window stickers and an information booklet.

The number of non smoking pubs in England and Wales has increased by 35% in the period under review and in the same period the number of pubs with no smoking at the bar more than doubled. Similarly the number of pubs with no smoking areas increased by more than 60%.

As the biggest pub company in Scotland we are in a great position to learn from our successful approach to the Scottish ban which came into force on 26 March 2006. Our entire senior operations team have visited pubs in Scotland in the run up to the ban to allow them to work with our retailers in England and Wales to exploit the individual opportunities presented by the changes in the trading environment which will result from the ban.

Our experience in Scotland shows that our range of smoking solutions are profit enhancing. Indeed our most successful solutions are those where investment has been accompanied by a drive in retail standards and enhancing the pub's offer to include, for example, higher standards of food provision.

Disability Discrimination Act

The Disability Discrimination Act is designed to eliminate all forms of discrimination and give people with disabilities rights of access to everyday services.
 
It stipulates service providers may have to consider making permanent physical adjustments to their premises to cater for the needs of physically disabled people.
 
This means retailers must take 'reasonable steps' to ensure facilities are suitable - this includes staff policy and attitude changes as well as physical alterations. The Disability Rights Commission will ensure legislation is met. To ensure our retailers understand and comply with the legislation, Punch Taverns is stressing the importance of customer service as part of its MLR and Profit Through Quality Training. It is also investing in pubs to ensure facilities are upgraded.