Fewer turn to NHS to help stop smoking

Almost 724,200 quit dates were set with NHS Stop Smoking Services in 2012-13, an 11 per cent fall on the previous year.

In England there was also a seven per cent drop in the number of people who successfully quit compared to the previous year amounting to 373,900 people.

In Yorkshire, 64,600 set a quit date and 54 per cent were successful. Only 40 per cent quit in Bradford, compared with 69 per cent in the East Riding and Leeds.

Spending on NHS Stop Smoking Services fell slightly to £87.7m, at a cost of £235 per quitter.

Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, said more effort should be made to stop people from taking up smoking, and repeated calls for standardised packaging for tobacco, which has been dropped by Ministers.