The UK's indoor smoking ban comes from the Health Act 2006 and the Smoke-free (Premises and Enforcement) Regulations 2006, which took effect across England on 1 July 2007 (with slightly different commencement dates in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). That law defines smoking specifically in terms of lit tobacco products, and it was written years before e-cigarettes existed in any meaningful commercial form.

Because e-cigarettes heat a liquid rather than burn anything, vaping simply falls outside the definition the smoke-free law uses. The Health and Safety Executive, which answers public queries on workplace smoking rules, confirms this directly: it does not enforce legislation or standards for e-cigarettes, and there is currently no bespoke regulatory system covering vaping in UK workplaces. That gap is the reason your employer's own policy, rather than a statute, decides what happens where you work.

A handful of real pieces of legislation do touch this area, just not in the way many people expect.

• The Health Act 2006 and its smoke-free regulations ban smoking indoors in virtually all enclosed workplaces, but they do not extend to vaping.
• The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 regulate e-cigarettes themselves, covering things like tank size, nicotine strength and labelling, but say nothing about where you may or may not use one at work.
• The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 still apply. Employers must assess general workplace risks, which can include how vaping affects colleagues nearby, even without vaping specific legislation.
• The Equality Act 2010 may come into play indirectly, since an employer refusing reasonable adjustments for a disabled employee who uses a nicotine replacement device could raise a separate discrimination issue.

Put simply, there is no statute that says you have, or do not have, the right to vape at your desk. The legal position is a gap filled by employer discretion, not a settled national rule.

Yes, and in practice most do address it one way or another. Because vaping is not covered by the statutory smoke-free rule, an employer can lawfully treat it however suits their workplace: permitting it at desks, restricting it to designated areas, extending the smoking policy to cover it, or banning it outright, including in company vehicles.

What employers cannot do is apply discipline unfairly or inconsistently. If a vaping policy exists, it should be written down, communicated clearly and applied the same way to everyone. Dismissal for a single, minor breach would be difficult to justify, and any disciplinary process should still follow the ACAS Code of Practice on fair procedure. Repeated or deliberate breaches of a clear policy are a different matter and can lead to formal action.

There is also no automatic right to a vaping break, unlike what some assume exists for smoking. Breaks are governed by your normal contractual rest breaks and whatever your employer's policy allows, not by a separate legal entitlement.

Even where a workplace permits vaping, a bit of simple etiquette avoids most of the friction that can lead to a policy getting tightened for everyone.

• Check your employer's policy first, rather than assuming the smoking rules tell you what is allowed.
• Be mindful of colleagues nearby, particularly anyone who has raised concerns about vapour or scent.
• Keep clouds modest indoors. A smaller, lower powered pod kit produces far less vapour than a sub ohm device.
• Step outside for stronger flavoured liquids, since scent can travel further than vapour volume suggests.
• Treat meeting rooms and shared vehicles as off limits unless you have explicitly confirmed otherwise.