Advice on Smoking Shelters

From 1 July 2007 it will be against the law to smoke in virtually all public places and workplaces. Indoor smoking rooms will no longer be permitted. There is no legal requirement for you to provide designated external areas for smoking or outdoor smoking shelters for your staff. However, if you are intending to provide a smoking shelter, you will need to ensure that it complies with the law in that it is not “enclosed” or “substantially enclosed”.

A smoking shelter will be considered ‘enclosed’ ifit has a ceiling or roof, and except for doors, windows and passageways,is wholly enclosed, either on a permanent or temporary basis.

A smoking shelter will be considered to be ‘substantially enclosed’ ifit has a ceiling or roof, but there are openings in the walls that are less than half of the total area of walls (including other structures which serve the purpose of walls and constitute the perimeter of the premises). When determining the area of an opening, no account can be taken of openings in which doors, windows or other fittings can be opened or shut.

A roofincludes any fixed or movable structure or device that is capable of covering all or part of a premises as a roof - this would include retractable canvas awnings.

Therefore if you intend to provide a smoking shelter you must ensure that it is at least 50% open sided, not including any windows or doors. Here are some examples of shelters that would comply with the regulations;

A shelter with the roof extending out more than twice the width of the sidewalls, therefore more than 50% open.

A lean to shelter

A curved shelter with an open area greater than 50%

Do not site a smoking shelter too close to a wall or existing structure as this may affect proper air flow through the shelter. If nearby walls are closer than 1.5m to the shelter they may also be considered as serving the purpose of walls to the shelter and will count towards the 50% wall area in the calculation to determine whether the shelter is ‘substantially enclosed’.

Smoking shelters should not be sited in such a way as to allow second hand smoke to drift into smoke free areas or premises.