Part 4: Smokefree regulations and vehicles

The law is quite clear in the case of vehicles used to transport members of the public - such as buses, trains and taxis - they must be smokefree, whether used for reward or hire or not.

The same applies to vehicles used in the course of paid or voluntary work by more than one person - even if those people use the vehicle at different times, or only intermittently.

In effect then, anyone using their own car, or one provided to them by their employer, should not smoke in their vehicle unless they are the only people that will ever use the vehicle for work - passengers and smokers included. An unlikely scenario!

The ban does not apply to privately owned vehicles that are not used for paid or voluntary work.

Interestingly the smokefree regulations also do not apply to vehicles with a roof that can be stowed or removed (soft-tops, cabriolets, etc) when the roof is completely removed or stowed.

In Scotland things are slightly different as all cars, whether used for business or private purposes, are exempt from the law, unless they are being used as a private taxi.

However, all other vehicles, i.e. vans and lorries, used primarily for business purposes and any public transportation vehicles are affected by the law in Scotland.

Of course this creates an interesting situation where an employee with a company car based in Scotland may be entitled to smoke in his/her car - even if other workers use the car, but not if he/she ever strays over the border into England!

Other anomolies exist when it comes to smokefree signs on vehicles, and on premises - as we will see in the next section...