The British government said Monday that it planned to outlaw smoking in most public places in England and Wales, but that smokers would still be free to light up in pubs and bars that do not serve food, in private members' clubs and in hospices.

 

Doctors and antismoking campaigners said, however, that the proposal did not go far enough and could prove unworkable.

 

Britain's public health minister, Caroline Flint, said the government had found that Britons favored a ban. "But they also felt there should be some consideration of the fact that cigarettes are not illegal, and there should be some element of free choice," she said.

 

The proposed ban, she said, represented "a great step forward" for the country, where one in four adults smokes.

 

If the ban is approved, Britain would join Ireland, Norway, Italy, Malta and Sweden with limits on smoking in enclosed public places.

 

The proposal, entitled "Choosing Health," calls for phasing in the ban in pubs and bars that serve food by 2008. The ban also would apply to workplaces, restaurants and outdoor venues, such as sports grounds, bus stops and building entrances.

 

Exempt locations would include hospices, care homes, psychiatric hospitals and prisons, as well as hotel rooms, hostels and the 20 percent of British bars that do not serve food.

 

Deborah Arnott, director of the antismoking group Action on Smoking and Health, said the exemptions made the proposal unworkable and "undermine the health benefits" of the ban.

 

The British Medical Association also urged more thorough proposals, calling for an outright ban. "The arguments about the effects of secondhand smoke have been won," its deputy chairman, Dr. Sam Everington, said. "The lives and health of employees must be the priority."

 

The public health minister said that treating smoking-related illnesses was costing the state National Health Service up to £1.7 billion, or $3 billion, a year.

 

The new measures "will save thousands of lives in England, reducing deaths from cancer, heart disease and diseases that smoking causes," Flint said.

 

However, the head of the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association, Tim Lord, said the proposal took into account "what people really want," that is "more nonsmoking facilities, combined with better ventilation, not an outright ban."