PHE advises that “local stop smoking services offer the best chance of success,” with a combination of expert help and stop smoking aids being optimal. On average in 2017-18, 51% of smokers who received this package of support managed to quit, and “among those who used an e-cigarette in their quit attempt, the success rate was up to 63%.”6,9,10

However, quit rates vary with setting. Community pharmacy was at the lower end of successful quit attempt rates at 45%, among the 51,303 people registering their attempted quit date at a pharmacy.

General practice had a success rate of 48% for its 103,024 registered quit attempts, while community services had a 55% success rate among the 91,353 registered quit attempters.10

Funding pressures prompted Cancer Research UK to warn that half of local authorities cut their budgets for smoking cessation services in 2017. In addition, four out of 10 local authorities were not providing support for smokers in line with NICE guidelines.11

NHS prescribing for nicotine replacement therapy and other medicines has also fallen dramatically, down 65% in a decade in England. Smoking cessation prescriptions fell from 2.48 million in 2006-07 to 0.86 million in 2017-18.

NRT scripts are down to around 463,000 items in 2017-18 compared to 1.76 million in 2007-08. Varenicline prescribing has reduced by two-thirds from a peak of 987,000 items in 2010-11 to around 373,000 items in 2017-18.8,10