BRITISH companies have started to refuse to employ smokers, even if they promise not to indulge their habit during working hours.

Scores of businesses have introduced the ban to cut down on time wasted by staff going outside smoke-free buildings for cigarette breaks. They also want to reduce the littering of their entrances with butts.

Employers that have introduced the bans include computer companies, accountants and other professionals such as art dealers. They claim employees who smell of smoke are off-putting to clients, while those who promise to confine their smoking to outside working hours rarely do so.

The zero-tolerance policy has been prompted by growing concern over the health risks and moves towards curbs on smoking in public places.

“It is still rare for employers to specifically request non-smokers but we are seeing more of this,” said Lawrence Carter, head of people strategy at Reed, the recruitment company.

“This is due to changed public perception and awareness of health issues. The initiatives in New York and Dublin (to ban smoking in public places) have also had an impact.”

Companies in Britain that have implemented a ban include Kalamazoo-UCS, a Texan software company that employs 400 people at its premises in Northfield, Birmingham. It refuses to hire people who smoke and a job advert for a computer programmer at the site warns: “Kalamazoo hires non-smokers only.”

Kershen-Fairfax, a London accountancy firm with about

20 staff, does not employ any smokers. The firm is currently advertising for a trainee accountant and a book-keeper, but smokers need not apply.

Deborah Kershen-Fisher, a partner at the firm, said: “If people went outside to smoke they could be absent from their desks for long periods of time.”

BouncingFish, a London website designer, also decided to ban smokers after a former employee went out for cigarette breaks every half hour. He later left the company.

Jason Kneen, co-founder of BouncingFish, said: “Because he was addicted, he became stressed out and it was affecting his work. His addiction was causing problems with clients.”

Chris Stanbury, managing director of Cravenplan Computers, an IT and website design company in Wiltshire that introduced a ban, said: “People who smoke smell and that is not acceptable if they are dealing with clients. If someone has been smoking in their car and then they are introduced to a client, it is pretty unpleasant.

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