Cost of helping people in Hampshire to quit smoking is revealed

The cost of stop smoking support services across Hampshire has been revealed

The cost to help smokers to quit the habit has been revealed, with more cash being spent in Portsmouth than anywhere else in the rest of the county.

New data shows Hampshire County Council is spending £682 per person to help them quit smoking, while Portsmouth and Southampton invested £1,064.19 and £1,044.78, respectively. The amount includes the cost of prescribed medication such as Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), bupropion (including branded medicine Zyban) and varenicline (including branded medicine Champix).

In recent publications, NHS Stop Smoking Services revealed the cost of local authorities helping people to quit smoke. It showed more than five million adults in England still smoke, and smoking remains the single biggest cause of preventable illness and death in the country – linked to 64,000 deaths a year.

According to the NHS statistics between April to June 2023, Portsmouth spent an average of £1,064.19 per person quitting smoking, including prescribed medication, followed by Southampton with an average of £1,044.78. Hampshire County Council then had an average of £682. Despite Hampshire County Council being the authority with the least expenditure per person in the county, the council has allocated £2.2 million to help people quit smoking for the year, excluding prescribed medication. From the total, £479,096 has been spent up to June 2023. As of June, the authority has reported and supported 702 people who successfully quit smoking.

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During its recent Health and Adult Social Care Select Committee, a report showed a continuing trend for rising numbers of referrals of pregnant smokers to the stop smoking service during 2022/23. There are also rising numbers of pregnant smokers setting a quit date, quitting for four weeks, and remaining quit after 12 weeks. It also said the NHS Long Term Plan tobacco dependency programme has increased collaboration across the system.

Over the last year, the Smokefree Hampshire Service and Public Health Commissioners have worked with maternity services to support the new in-house maternity stop smoking service, including training new tobacco dependency advisers (TDA) advisers for maternity and ensuring a uniform approach across the system.

As part of the Government’s plan to create a ‘smoke-free generation’ by 2040, it is anticipated that the county council will receive £1.5m per year in additional support until 2028/29, the majority of which is expected to be spent on expanding the Hampshire Stop Smoking Service.

As announced at Autumn Statement 2023, the duty rate on all tobacco products have increased by the tobacco duty escalator of two per cent above RPI inflation. The duty rate for hand-rolling tobacco rose by an additional 10 per cent, to 12 per cent above RPI inflation.