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On 20 January 2008, the NHS Information Centre published a report (Statistics on NHS stop smoking services in England) which finds that fewer smokers kicked the habit in the first half of 2008/09 despite a sharp increase in spending on NHS Stop Smoking Services.
The report reveals that the NHS spent £33 million on such services between April and September 2008, compared to £26 million for the same period in 2007. It shows that the number of smokers who managed to stay off cigarettes four weeks after quitting (the measure used to indicate someone has successfully quit) dropped to 133,704 between April and September 2008, a 24% fall compared to the same period in 2007 when 176,277 successfully quit.
Significantly, this latter period included the months straddling the introduction of the smoking ban in July 2007, when the number of those who abandoned the habit was particularly high.
Statistics on NHS stop smoking services in England: April 2008 to September 2008