E-cigarette users should be allowed extra breaks and the use of “vaping” rooms at work so they do not have to mingle with tobacco smokers, Public Health England has said.

The government body issued new official advice for employers to make vaping the “more convenient option” in the hope of persuading more people to give up tobacco. It says being forced to vape outdoors will “undermine their ability to quit smoking”.

The 2.8 million people who have taken up e-cigarettes, which turn liquid nicotine into a flavoured vapour, are almost all smokers or former smokers. About half have given up tobacco completely since vaping. But users of e-cigarettes are treated by many employers in the same way as cigarette smokers and forced to smoke outside.