A toolkit to help employers make workplaces smoke-free has been launched by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and anti-smoking lobby group Ash.
The bodies have estimated that more than two million people in the UK still work in workplaces where smoking is allowed throughout, and another 10 million work in places where smoking is allowed somewhere on the premises.
The guidance is aimed primarily at local authorities and outlines the sort of powers they have and opportunties to take action under the current law.
Pressure has been increasing for some time for the Government to ban smoking in public places but ministers have done nothing yet, although there have been indications that such a move may be imminent.
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The move comes as the BMA has reiterated its calls for smoking to be banned in public places. Five pub chains last month said they were introducing restrictions on smoking, partly to try to head off an outright ban.
