The Government is considering banning smokers from huddling together outside office buildings and at bus stops in order to have a cigarette.
Sports stadia would also be covered under the measure in the regulations attached to the Government’s Health Bill, which would give ministers the power to extend the coming ban on smoking indoors in public places to outdoor areas where lots of people might be crammed together.
Lord Warner, a Health Minister, said that there were places outdoors where the public might be at risk from passive smoking.
“These will be places that will not be enclosed or substantially enclosed, but where there is a risk of harm from second-hand smoke due to the inevitable close grouping of people,” Lord Warner said.
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“Examples might be sports stadia, bus shelters and entrances to public buildings or workplaces.”
The Government is due to publish regulations governing ministerial powers under the Bill in the next few weeks.
Lord Warner said that the amendment being proposed did specify that the extra powers could only be used for such areas of there was a “significant risk” that people would be exposed to “significant quantities of smoke”.
Anti-smoking campaigners welcomed the proposals. A spokesman for the charity Ash said: “We would be delighted if the Government were to extend the no smoking rules to apply to sports stadia and similar public places that are not being covered at the moment, where there’s a risk of second-hand smoke.
“But we don’t think the Government currently intends to do this. This is something we will be arguing for if the Act comes into force and over the next few years.”
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Lord Warner told peers that there were however no plans to ban people smoking in their own home.
“We have no intention of making people’s private places smoke-free by law,” he said. “The Government will implement smoke-free legislation in line with human rights requirements, including the right to respect for private life.”