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• Legal Opinion: Introduction of no-smoking law raises prospect of litigation  

Few now expect the new regime to be introduced without any legal challenges. Alan Chalmers, employment partner at the law firm DLA Piper, warns that employers may be forced to ban smoking breaks for workers who want to pop outside for a cigarette. "There has never been a right to smoke at work and employers are not required to provide facilities for their staff to smoke outside, even if smoking has previously been permitted in the workplace," he says. "The smoking ban may lead to an increase in complaints from non-smokers that smokers get extra breaks. If smoking breaks are allowed, employers should have a policy making it clear what is acceptable and what is not."

There are also cultural concerns raised by the ban. Sunday is expected to be the last day of the shisha café, a place where customers smoke the Arabic water-pipe in which fruit-scented tobacco is burnt using coal, passed through an ornate water vessel and inhaled through a hose. The last five to 10 years have seen a rapid growth in the number of these cafés across the country, particularly in Manchester and Birmingham.

On Monday night, the journalist and broadcaster Andrew Neil was the guest speaker at a special event organised by the pro-smoking group Forest to mark the introduction of the ban. He was joined by Antony Worrall Thompson and David Hockney. Forest, which describes the ban as illiberal and draconian, said the event was "possibly the last opportunity for you to eat, drink and smoke at major indoor public event anywhere in the UK".

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