PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(28 November 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure that local stop smoking services offer the option of a National Institute for Health and Care Excellence-approved non-pharmaceutical method to help smokers quit.

Asked by:
Mr Paul Kohler (Liberal Democrat)

The Government is providing local stop smoking services an additional £70 million this year to support smokers to quit. It will also provide an additional £70 million next year for stop smoking services.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published recommendations for providers of stop smoking services. The guidelines suggest that the most effective way of successfully stopping smoking is through behavioural support therapy combined with either varenicline, nicotine replacement therapy, or nicotine-containing e-cigarettes. Further information on the NICE’s recommendations for providers of stop smoking services is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng209/chapter/Recommendations-on-treating-tobacco-dependence#stop-smoking-interventions

Local stop smoking services currently offer the option of non-pharmaceutical methods to help smokers quit, alongside behavioural support. According to the 2023/24 annual Statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services in England, 20,641, or 11%, of those accessing services and setting a quit date used no pharmaceutical products in their attempt to quit smoking.

Answered by:
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1 January 1970