What are the penalties for non-compliance?
• Failure to display minimum no smoking signs: up to £1000 or £200 fixed penalty notice (early payment discounted amount £150) • Smoking in a no-smoking place: up to £200 or a penalty notice of £50 (early payment discounted amount £30) • Failing to prevent smoking in a smoke-free place; up to £2500 with no fixed penalty option. Do employers have to provide smoking breaks or outside smoking areas? No, on both counts. By law, employers must give staff an uninterrupted rest break of 20 minutes when their daily working time is more than six hours. As far as smoking breaks are concerned, companies have the right to choose whether they: • Limit staff to only smoking within this statutory break • Permit staff to take ‘as and when required’ smoking breaks • Set specific limits, such as a maximum of three smoking breaks per day which should not exceed 10 minutes each. It is worth considering that when added up, the average smoker spends approximately half a day a week on smoking breaks. As an e
