Exemptions



There are some exemptions to the smoke-free law. These include private accommodation, accommodation for guests and club members such as hotels, other residential accommodation such as care homes, performers, specialist tobacconists, offshore installations, and research and testing facilities. But the ban extends to mental health units.



Private homes are exempt from the ban with some caveats. Smoking is not banned on premises where the owner or resident requires personal health care services or assistance with domestic or maintenance services. The Smokefree England website explains: “Community workers and support staff, indeed anyone who works in someone else’s private dwelling are not prohibited by the Smoke Free legislation which governs workplaces.” However, the ban does extend to homeworkers in their own homes if any part of the dwelling is used solely for work purposes and is also used by a person who does not live there. Communal areas in blocks of flats that are also a place of work for porters, cleaners and postal workers are not exempt from the ban.



There are some limited exemptions for workplaces where people also reside, such as care homes. In these workplaces, smoking is allowed in either a bedroom or a designated smoking room, but only by residents and their guests. Employees are not allowed to smoke on the premises (except in smoking rooms on offshore platforms). Hotels and guest houses may allow smoking in designated bedrooms. To gain these exemptions, the rooms have to be designated in writing by the person in charge of the premises as rooms where smoking is permitted. The rooms must not have a ventilation system which vents into other parts of the premises.