The government has announced a new strategy designed to halve the number of smokers in the UK, from 21 to 10 per cent of the population, by 2020.

Based on the 1998 strategy 'Smoking Kills', the proposals outlined in the scheme could see the current smoking ban extended to building entrances and public open spaces, potentially impacting on beer gardens and similar external areas. Pub operators are already facing a commitment by the government to ban the sale of cigarettes from vending machines from October 2011. Health secretary Andy Burnham said: "The government has made massive progress on tobacco over the past decade. Ten years ago, millions more people smoked and many have died early as a result.

"We've come so far and now we'll go even further - to push forward and save even more lives." Other proposals include considering the case for selling cigarettes in plain packaging, stopping children and young people becoming smokers in the first place by cracking down on the sale of cheap, illicit cigarettes and offering smokers NHS help if they want to give up.

Chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson said: "We must keep pushing hard for a tobacco free future and keep up the momentum gained by England going smokefree in 2007. "Since then, the number of people who have given up smoking has increased, so this new strategy and targeted support will help smokers who want to quit, to give up for good. It will also discourage children from taking up smoking and prevent a great number of unnecessary and early deaths."