“Officers would be expected to be on the look-out for any type of inappropriate behaviour which subsequently reduces a driver’s ability to control their vehicle.”

Andrew Howard, the AA’s head of road safety, said if smokers were posing a risk to other road users by lighting up, then it was only right they should be prosecuted.

But he stressed the police’s reaction must be proportionate to the risk actually posed.

He said: “We must look at this practically.

“I think we would all expect the police to prosecute a driver who swerved, mounted the kerb or drove erratically because they had been distracted while they were lighting a cigarette or didn’t have both hands on the wheel.

“However, police action must be proportionate to the risk caused and someone sitting in stationary traffic smoking is hardly going to pose a risk to other road users.

“The last edition of the Highway Code advises against smoking while driving, but also against action such as drinking and eating while at the wheel or even changing a CD.

“Safe driving needs total concentration and sometimes things like looking for where the lights are on a new car cannot be avoided. In the wider context of driving, they are a necessary distraction. However, smoking is not.”

The move comes after FOREST also reacted angrily to calls this week to outlaw cigarettes from family homes.

The lobby group’s executive director, Simon Clark, accused health chiefs of going too far.

“Calling for smoking to be banned from British family homes is ludicrous,” he said. “This is a prime example of Labour’s ‘nanny state’ health chiefs going too far.

“The vast majority of parents who smoke are fully aware of the dangers inherent in passive smoking and take precautions to protect their children.This is an empty suggestion and one which could not be properly enforced.

“What are we going to have, the ‘Smoking Police’ going round in smoke detector vans?”