Letter: Closing time

We would like to point out that there is absolutely no evidence that the smoking ban has been responsible for an increase in the closure of pubs in Scotland (your report, 9 September), but there is plenty of evidence that Scotland is a healthier nation for having introduced smoke-free public places.

It is clear there are a number of factors affecting pubs, such as changing social habits, raw materials and energy prices increasing while beer sales decline, and a disparity between the VAT and duty paid in pubs which is higher than that in the retail sector.

This research issued by a pro-smoking, tobacco industry-funded group ignores all these more pressing factors. In addition, the data used to inform the survey has been questioned by independent researchers, since it classes pubs that re-registered as restaurants as having closed.

Sheila Duffy

ASH Scotland

Frederick Street

Edinburgh