The number of attempts to quit smoking through NHS Stop Smoking Services in 2010/11 - and the number of attempts that ended in success - is more than treble that of ten years ago, new figures from The NHS Information Centre show today.

In 2010/11 there were almost 788,000 quit dates set with the services in England and nearly 384,000 successful quit attempts; compared to 227,000 quit dates and just fewer than 120,000 successful attempts in 2001/02; according to Statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services: England, April 2010 to March 2011.

Among pregnant women during the same time period; the number of quit dates set³ and successful attempts rose by a greater degree - more than four-fold - from 4,000 quit dates and 1,900 successful attempts in 2001/02, to 22,000 quit dates and 9,900 successful attempts in 2010/11.

The report also shows that overall, the successful quit rate was 53 per cent in 2001/02 and peaked at 57 per cent in 2003/04 but has declined since - remaining at 49 per cent for the last two years. For pregnant women; the success rate peaked at 53 per cent in 2005/06 but has since fallen; remaining at 45 per cent for the last two years.

Other key findings show that in 2010/11:

• South Central Strategic Health Authority (SHA) showed the highest successful quit rate at 55 per cent of the 50,000 quit dates set with the services. The North East and North West SHAs had the lowest successful quit rates, each at 44 per cent, of the 59,000 and 138,000 quit dates set respectively.
• Total expenditure on NHS Stop Smoking Services was £84.3 million; nearly half a million pounds more than in the previous year and almost £60 million more than ten years ago. The report is released today along with Statistics on Smoking: England, 2011, which brings together a range of information, some of it previously published, about smoking from several sources. Topics covered include prevalence, behaviours, health outcomes and cost. According to this report, in 2009:
• About 22 per cent of men were current cigarette smokers compared to 20 per cent of women. These figures have remained stable over recent years.
• Among men, smoking prevalence was highest in London (26 per cent) and the North West (24 per cent) and lowest in the East Midlands and South West (19 per cent). The highest prevalence among women was in the North East (23 per cent), Yorkshire and the Humber (22 per cent), and the North West (22 per cent), while the lowest was in the South West (17 per cent).
• Divorced and separated people were about as twice as likely to smoke heavily (more than 20 cigarettes a day) than those who were single or married/cohabiting (12 per cent compared to six and five per cent respectively). These figures have remained stable over recent years.

NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: “NHS Stop Smoking Services in England saw more quit dates set with it in the last financial year than ever before; and indeed the greatest ever number of successful quit attempts.

“But while a bigger number of quit dates are being set with the service and the number of attempts to successfully kick the habit have also risen, overall the success rate is hovering at just below half. This suggests that while there may be a greater resolve within our society to quit smoking with the NHS, it is still the case that about half of all attempts are not successful.”

Access: Statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services: England, April 2010 to March 2011 at www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/sss1011

Access: Statistics on Smoking: England, 2011 at www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/smoking11

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Notes to editors

1. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care (The NHS IC) is England's authoritative, central, independent source of health and social care information. It works with a wide range of health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researchers, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS IC also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
2. Statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services: England, April 2010 – March 2011 presents results from the monitoring of the NHS Stop Smoking Services in England during the period April 2010 to March 2011. The report includes information on the number of quit dates set and the number of successful quit attempts at the four week follow-up. It also presents a more in depth analyses of the key measures of the service, including pregnant women, breakdowns by ethnic groups and type of pharmacotherapy received and regional analyses at Strategic Health Authority (SHA) and Primary Care Trust (PCT) levels.
3. It is possible that the same individual may make more than one quit attempt during the year. In such instances, the data providers are asked to record the details of each quit attempt for collection and analysis purposes. As the data is obtained via an aggregate, rather than a record-level collection, it is not possible to ascertain the number of individuals who do in fact make multiple quit attempts in the same year. This has been the situation consistently throughout the time series, so comparisons with previous years are on a like-for-like basis.
4. A client is counted as a "successful quitter" if he/she self-reports that they have successfully quit smoking four weeks after setting a quit date. On the basis that the clinical viewpoint tends to be that a client should not be counted as a ‘failure' if he/she has smoked in the difficult first days after the quit date, the definition allows for early relapses (within the first 2 weeks after setting a quit date) provided they have not smoked at all between the end of the first two weeks and the four week follow-up.
5. 2001/02 is used as the comparison year as this is the first year this data was collected.
6. Figures relating to the number of quit dates set and number of successful attempts have been rounded to the nearest thousand.
7. The pregnant women group referred to is a subgroup of the overall total of numbers setting a quit date.
8. Statistics on Smoking: England, 2011, combines data from different sources presenting it in a user-friendly format. It contains data and information previously published by The NHS Information Centre, Department of Health, the Office for National Statistics and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. It also includes new analyses carried out by The NHS Information Centre. The report presents information on the prevalence of smoking in adults and children, behaviours and attitudes towards smoking, as well as estimates of the number of smoking-related hospital admissions and smoking-related deaths in England.
9. The key finding which relates to the difference in expenditure on NHS Stop Smoking Services between 2010/11 and 2001/02 is a cash terms comparison. It has not been adjusted for inflation.
10. The key findings from Statistics on Smoking: England, 2011 featured in this press release are based on secondary analysis of the 2009 General Lifestyle Survey (GLF) dataset released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). ONS published the 2009 GLF results, mainly at GB level, in January 2011. These results can be found at www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=5756
11. For media enquires please call 0845 257 6990 or contact mediaenquiries@ic.nhs.uk