NHS stop smoking services quarterly
Local Delivery Plan Standard, 2024/25 (Quarter 3)

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents information from October to December 2024 (Quarter 3) on NHS Stop Smoking Services in Scotland and health boards’ progress towards their annual Local Delivery Plan (LDP) Standard. The LDP Standard for NHS Scotland in 2024/25 is to achieve at least 7,026 self-reported successful twelve-week quits (those people who have abstained from smoking for 12 weeks) through the support of smoking cessation services in the 40% most deprived areas (60% in NHS Island Boards). This release is also supported by an interactive dashboard that allows for more detailed breakdowns of smoking quit attempts.

Main points

• In the period October to December 2024, NHS Scotland achieved 64% (1,117 quits) of a quarter of the annual LDP standard (1,757).
• At the end of December 2024, NHS Scotland has achieved 53% (3,749 quits out of 7,026) towards the required annual LDP standard.
• At the end of December 2024, 1 out of 14 NHS Boards are currently on target to meet their annual LDP Standard. NHS Board performance against their quarterly LDP Standard ranged from 7% to 117%.

Bar graph of NHS Health Board performance against the LDP Standard.

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Scotland and NHS Board performance against the LDP Standard at end of Quarter 3 (Q3)

• In the period October to December 2024 individuals from the 40% most deprived areas (60% in island boards) accessing non-pharmacy services were recorded as still not smoking after 12 weeks at a rate of 42% and those accessing pharmacy-based services were recorded as still not smoking after 12 weeks at a rate of 20%.

Please see the Stop Smoking Services Dashboard or the Data Tables for more information on these main points (Data Tables A1, B3, and B4 for Annual LDP target and Quarterly LDP achievement, and Data Tables C4 for pharmacy / non-pharmacy activity).

Background

Smoking cessation services in Scotland are delivered as specialist services that offer structured behavioural support delivered in groups or in one-to-one sessions and are often provided together with licensed pharmacotherapy (nicotine replacement therapy or bupropion). This support is delivered by specially trained staff in a variety of NHS and non-NHS settings. There are also pharmacy based smoking cessation services, which complements the specialist smoking cessation services and provides a course of advice and nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) over a period of up to 12 weeks. More information can be found on the NHS Inform site.  

In July 2005 a national smoking cessation database was set up to capture data on people presenting to NHS services in Scotland for help to stop smoking. This database collects the mandatory service user information required for national monitoring purposes for smoking cessation services from all 14 NHS Boards in Scotland. This information has been used to generate this report.  

The LDP Standard for NHS boards was designed to embed and sustain successful twelve-week quits (those people who have abstained from smoking for 12 weeks) through support of smoking cessation services in the 40% most deprived areas (60% in the Island Boards), as measured by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). The annual target was set that 1.5% of smokers in these areas (estimated using Scottish Health Survey data) would have a self-reported successful twelve-week quit through smoking cessation services. For NHSScotland this was set at 7,026 12-week quits in 2019/20. Due to the impacts of COVID-19 this has not been updated since 2019/20, and the target has been maintained at 7,026 for 2024/25

The figures presented here on quit attempts include only those attempted through NHS stop smoking services and do not include those attempted through private services or self-led attempts. Figures are based on total quit attempts set during the year, rather than total number of people with a recorded quit attempt, so could include repeat quit attempts for the same person. More detailed information on quit attempts can also be found within the NHS Stop Smoking Services Scotland annual report.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be September 2025.