NATIONAL Car Rental and Guy Salmon is applying a UK-wide smoking ban to its 45,000-strong vehicle fleet ahead of the legislation being introduced in England this summer.

The programme to put no- smoking stickers in rental vehicles started in March this year and by the time the law is in place all vehicles will have stickers on dashboards.

Ron Santiago, the group’s vice president, UK operations, said: ‘By putting no-smoking stickers in all our vehicles we can ensure that they are not at risk from the heavy penalties for non-compliance with the new legislation.’

The smoking ban, which includes vehicles used by more than one person for work purposes, came into force in Scotland last year and in Wales on April 2. It will be effective in Northern Ireland from April 30 and in England from July 1.