Its records showed that 1,238 summonses were issued to offenders between January 1 and July 22.

During the same period, 11,200 complaints were filed, while 10,432 inquiries were received on the office's 29618823 hotline.

Of the summonses, 379 were issued at video game centres, 222 at restaurants, 109 at shopping malls and 103 at parks. The remainder came from small stores, wet markets, staircases, car parks and public toilets. The figures are updated every week.

'There are about 200 black spots, including various statutory no-smoking areas such as food premises, amusement game centres, parks, markets and billiards rooms,' a spokesman for the Health Department said. He declined to name the black spots.

'The summonses were not issued to the offenders against whom the complaints were made. They were issued to those caught smoking when our inspectors checked the premises,' he said.

Legislator Andrew Cheng Kar-foo said the figures showed that frontline staff had difficulty enforcing the smoking ban.

'The lack of human resources hinders the effectiveness of the law, as they cannot attend [to] most of the complaints and do not have enough inspectors,' he said.

The department said it had 34 inspectors and planned to increase that number to 71.

'Frontline staff morale is very low. They have no authority and are always being scolded and challenged by offenders,' Mr Cheng said. 'It is very hard to attract new recruits.'

In 21 of the cases, the inspectors had to call in the police as they could not persuade the offenders to show their identity cards.

Mr Cheng said he had received complaints about restaurant owners telling non-smokers to eat somewhere else if they could not stand second-hand smoke. 'This is outrageous ... Restaurant operators should be held responsible for not enforcing the law, but the ban sadly does not cover that,' he said.

Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health chairman Tso Wei-kwok said the Tobacco Control Office should consider disclosing the names of premises where the ban was not enforced properly.

'The legislation is defective as the operators of the premises have no legal responsibilities if they do not enforce the law,' he said.

'If the situation does not improve, the office should think about disclosing the names of these shops and restaurants which have no respect for the law. The public has the right to know the names of restaurants involved in food poisoning cases, so why not restaurants which have been the subject of complaints?'

Diaoyu Islands activist Or Wah, who was attacked by a group of smokers in a North Point restaurant in May after he complained about them, also criticised the Tobacco Control Office for not injecting resources to enforce the law.

'The office is being very irresponsible as it is not capable of enforcing the law and is not willing to enforce the law. When we, members of the public, want to be good citizens, we are attacked by those who break the law. It is unfair!' he said.

Fuming!

Cases where smokers have resorted to violence against complainants:

January An off-duty police officer, 44, was head-butted after he told a 25-year-old man to stop smoking in a lift in a private residential building in Hung Shui Kiu, Yuen Long. The smoker was arrested.

April A 60-year-old woman was slapped in the face by a female smoker in a restaurant in Sheung Shui after she told the woman to stop smoking. The smoker also poured hot tea over the woman and swore at her before running away.

May Diaoyu Islands activist Or Wah and a number of celebrities at a restaurant in North Point were attacked by a group of smokers with chairs and glasses after they were asked to stop smoking.

May A 28-year-old man was punched in the face after he told a man, 45, to stop smoking in a lift in Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui.