Health Bill

That possibility has been raised in the context of employment rights. Provided that there continue to be smoking pubs, a disabled person who might otherwise be able to work in a smoke-free environment will be effectively debarred from applying for a job in those pubs. The implications for people who have those sorts of disabilities need to be considered. We touched on health inequalities. There is a danger that we think of the problem as a north-south issue, but even in relatively prosperous areas it is clear that the inequalities in health will be exacerbated by the Bill. My director of public health in south Gloucestershire—a relatively prosperous area—tabulated the pubs that do and do not serve food across the authority. The director found that all the pubs in the most prosperous fifth serve food, but 41 per cent. of the so-called wet pubs are in the poorest fifth of the area. So the partial ban will increase inequalities within areas and between areas, not just across the country as a whole.