A report from NHS Stop Smoking Services in England suggests that a reduction in the use of NHS Stop Smoking Services may be partly due to the increased use of e-cigarettes which have become widely available.

The number of people setting a quit date through NHS Stop Smoking Services in England in 2015-16 has fallen for the fourth consecutive year to 382,500. This represents a decrease of 15% on 2014-15 and 37% on 2005-06.

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The statistics, published on 18 August 2016, also reveal that the number of people who successfully quit (self-reported) has fallen for the fourth consecutive year, although the success quit rate remained similar at 51%.

Seventy-one percent of successful quitters (self-reported) (139,287) had their results confirmed by carbon monoxide (CO) verification in 2015-16. This is an increase in the proportion who had their results confirmed by CO verification of two percentage points from 2014-15.

The full report is available at http://www.digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB21162.