Half of councils no longer provide universal specialist stop smoking services

Almost half of England’s local councils no longer have a specialist stop smoking service for all smokers in their area as a result of government cuts to public health budgets, a new analysis has shown.1

The report from the charities Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and Cancer Research UK found that 85 of 151 local authorities (56%) provided a universal specialist service in 2018-19, a drop from 61% the previous year. A further 13 (9%) provided only restricted specialist support to targeted groups of smokers, such as pregnant women and people with a mental health condition.

The charities said …