Publication, Part of Statistics on Local Stop Smoking Services in England
Statistics on Local Stop Smoking Services in England, April 2025 to March 2026 (Q4, Annual)
Official statistics
Part 3 - Prescriptions and Stop Smoking Aids
Prescription Items
This section presents information on the number of prescription items used to help people stop smoking, using Prescribing Analysis and Costing Tool (ePACT) data, which are accessed from the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA).
The Net Ingredient Cost (NIC) is the basic cost of a drug as listed in the Drug Tariff or price lists; it does not include discounts, dispensing costs, prescription charges or fees.
The term “pharmacology” has been replaced by “stop smoking aid”. This is to aid understanding, though the definition remains the same, please see the data quality statement of the report for further details.
There are 4 main stop smoking aids prescribed for the treatment of smoking dependence in England: Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), Bupropion (Zyban), Vareniciline (Champix) and Cytisine. Cytisine was new to the UK in 2024/25 but has been used for many years in some countries to help people quit smoking.
The number of prescription items dispensed in England in 2025/26 was 265,502, compared to 1.8 million in 2013/14.
In 20245/26, 269,345 items of NRTs were dispensed, a decrease from 2024/25 (334,303). The number of NRTs prescribed was trending downwards until 2019/20. However, since 2020/21, the total NRTs prescribed via the Stop Smoking Service has varied between about 269,000 and 379,000 NRTs prescribed.
Cytisine, which was new for 2024/25, is the least common item with 2,212 items dispensed in 2025/26. Bupropion is the next least common item with 42,289 items dispensed in 2025/26.
There was a large increase in the number of items of Varenicline dispensed in 2025/26 (106,967) and increase of 368.9% from 2024/25 (22,811).
The large increase is likely due to the 'Supply Disruption Alert', which may have impacted the numbers of prescribed items in 2023/24. Further information can be found here: https://www.ncsct.co.uk/publications/Champix_alternatives_2021
Cost of prescription items
The Net Ingredient Cost (NIC) of all prescription items used to help people quit smoking was £15.2 million in 2025/26. This is higher than the cost in 2024/25 when it was £13.8 million.
The cost for this financial year is about a quarter of the total in 2013/14 when the NIC of all items was £48.8 million.
Average NIC per item
The average NIC per item for all stop smoking aids was £36.10 in 2025/26.
The average cost per NRT item in this time period was £34.10. The cost per item of Bupropion was £37.70 per item prescribed, the cost per item of Varenicline was £38.80 and the cost per item of Cytisine was £113.90.
Free prescriptions
A substantial proportion of those setting quit dates were eligible to receive free prescriptions from the NHS. This section breaks down those eligible to receive free prescriptions from the NHS by number of quit attempts and self-reported quit rate.
Number of quit attempts
The number of people eligible to receive free prescriptions setting a quit date was 152,916 in 2025/26. This continues the increase from 106,512 seen since 2020/21. Prior to 2020/21, there had been a steady decline from 331,616 in 2013/14.
Self-reported quit rate
The self-reported quit rate for people eligible to receive free prescriptions in 2025/26 is 53.1% which is a decrease from 2024/25 (54.7.0%). The rate has remained higher since a peak in 2020/21, which coincides with the reduction in CO validations available due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, rates varied between 48.5% and 50.4%).
Pharmacotherapy
This section breaks down those setting a quit date by the type of stop smoking aid used during their quit attempt. Patients can receive a variety of different treatments, including NRTs (Nicotine replacement therapy), Bupropion/Varencicline/Cytisine only or any combination of licensed/unlicensed NRTs.
Number of quit attempts
‘Combination of licensed NRTs concurrently’ had the highest number of quit attempts (79,540), followed by 'Nicotine vapes only' (43,286).
Self-reported quit rate
‘Varenicline only’ had the highest self-reported quit rate (58.5%). Other therapies varied between 58.0% for ‘NRT and nicotine vapes at the same time' and 38.1% for ‘Treatment option not recorded’.
‘Nicotine vapes and nicotine replacement therapy at the same time’ had the highest self-reported quit rate (61%).
Last edited: 23 July 2026 9:31 am