Where is smoking permitted?
Full details of the premises allowed exemptions under the smokefree legislation can be found in the smoking regulations.
Only a few premises are exempt, subject to strict conditions:
- Specific guest bedrooms can be designated for smoking in hotels, inns, hostels, guesthouses and members clubs that provide accommodation
- Care homes, hospitals and prisons may designate either bedrooms or rooms to be used only for smoking, for use by people over 18 years of age
- Offshore installations may designate rooms to be used for smoking
- Specialist tobacconist shops may allow people to sample cigars or pipe tobacco inside the shop premises
- Research and testing facilities may designate certain rooms for smoking only while the rooms are being used for research or testing activities specified in the law
- Residential Mental Health Units may also designate bedrooms and rooms for smoking but only until 1 July 2008
- There is also an exemption in relation to performances where the artistic integrity makes it appropriate for a person to smoke.
Note: No premises other than those detailed above and which are exempt under the regulations may designate rooms/bedrooms for smoking.
What is a ‘designated room’?
A designated room is one which:
- has been designated in writing by the person in charge of the establishment concerned as a room in which smoking is permitted;
- has a ceiling and, except for doors and windows, is completely enclosed on all sides by solid floor-to-ceiling walls;
- has a ventilation system which does not ventilate into any other part of the building, except for other designated rooms;
- has mechanically closing doors (this requirement does not apply to prisons); and
- is clearly marked as a room in which smoking is permitted.
Note: all the conditions above must be met if a room/bedroom is to be designated for smoking. If it does not, then it must be smoke free at all times.
If you employ staff in an exempt premises you must ensure that you have measures in place to minimise the risk of their exposure to second-hand smoke, for example; staff working in a care home where they are expected to enter designated room/bedrooms to attend to the needs of residents.
If you own or manage a premises which is exempt and you are not sure whether any rooms you propose to designate for smoking, comply with the above requirements, contact Walsall Council’s Public Protection Team on 01922 652210.
You are not legally obliged to provide a designated room/bedroom for smoking.
Smoking is also allowed in outdoor smoking areas and smoking shelters. Please see the relevant sections of this website for details on the construction and use of smoking shelters.
Contact us
Public Protection Services
Environmental Health Division
Challenge Building
Hatherton Road
Walsall
WS1 1DJ
Telephone 01922 652210
Fax 01922 630697
Email publichealthteam@walsall.gov.uk