If you live in the UK and want help to stop smoking, free expert support is probably closer than you think. An NHS stop smoking service gives you a trained adviser, regular check-ins and easy access to stop smoking medicines for up to 12 weeks, at no cost for the support itself. You can usually refer yourself with a phone call, and many services now work by phone or online as well as face to face.
This guide explains how the services work in England, what happens at each appointment, which medicines and vapes you can get, what it costs, how Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland differ, and what the latest official data say about results.
What is an NHS stop smoking service?
Stop smoking services are local programs, usually commissioned by councils in England, that give you expert behavioral support alongside stop smoking treatments. The NHS describes them as free services that can improve your chances of quitting for good, run by experts and ex-smokers who give personalized advice.
In practice, you get three things at once:
- A trained adviser who helps you plan a quit date, spot your triggers and cope with cravings.
- Easy, affordable access to treatment such as nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) or stop smoking tablets.
- Accountability, through regular sessions and a carbon monoxide (CO) breath test that shows your progress.
You do not need to be fully ready to quit before you get in touch. The NHS Better Health site says local services can help even if you are not yet ready. Government funding has also grown: the Department of Health and Social Care confirmed an extra £70 million for local stop smoking services and support in England for 2025 to 2026, on top of the existing public health grant.
If you are still deciding between a service and going it alone, our overview of free quit resources compares helplines, apps and services side by side.
How to find and self-refer to your local service
There are several ways in, and none of them requires a GP appointment first:
- Phone your local service directly. Search for your council’s stop smoking service or use the NHS service finder on the NHS stop smoking services page.
- Call the National Smokefree Helpline on 0300 123 1044 (England only). NHS Better Health lists opening hours of 9am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 11am to 4pm at weekends.
- Ask a professional to refer you. Your GP, pharmacist or health visitor can refer you. If you are unsure what to say, see our guide to talking to your doctor.
- Walk into a pharmacy. Many pharmacies offer stop smoking schemes with tailored advice and NRT.
- Start in hospital. The NHS Long Term Plan committed to offering NHS-funded tobacco treatment to everyone admitted to hospital by March 2024. Through the NHS Community Pharmacy Smoking Cessation Service, hospitals can refer you to a community pharmacy to keep going after discharge.
Sessions take place in GP surgeries, pharmacies, high street shops and even mobile bus clinics, depending on the area. If you cannot attend in person, you may be able to join by phone or online.
This short video from Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust shows what one local service looks like when you sign up:
What happens in the 12-week program
Every local service runs slightly differently, but the NHS describes a common structure. Support usually lasts up to 12 weeks.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| First session | You talk about why you smoke, why you want to stop and past attempts. You set a quit date, take a CO breath test and discuss treatment options. |
| Quit date | You stop smoking completely, usually with a treatment already started or in hand. |
| Follow-up sessions | At each meeting you receive a supply of, or prescription for, your treatment and your CO level is measured. |
| Four-week check | Services record whether you are smoke-free four weeks after your quit date. This is the main national success measure. |
| Up to week 12 | Support continues while you finish your treatment course and plan for high-risk situations. |
Between sessions you get an emergency number for out-of-hours support when cravings are strong. Advisers also help you identify tempting situations and plan ways to cope with or avoid them.
Many people pick a date that lines up with a national campaign. If October suits you, our Stoptober plan maps out the first 28 days, and a local service can support you through the whole month and beyond.
Which medicines and vapes can you get?
Your adviser will go through the options at your first session. According to the NHS, services can help you get:
- Nicotine replacement therapy: patches, gum, lozenges, inhalators, and mouth and nasal sprays.
- Stop smoking tablets: varenicline, cytisinicline (also called cytisine) or bupropion (Zyban).
- Vapes: e-cigarettes are not licensed medicines, so they cannot be prescribed on the NHS, but your local service may offer a free e-cigarette starter pack plus advice on using it.
NICE guideline NG209 advises that cytisinicline, varenicline, combination short- and long-acting NRT and nicotine e-cigarettes, each with behavioral support, are more likely to help people stop. NICE also says cytisinicline, varenicline and bupropion should not be offered to people under 18, and cytisinicline should not be offered to people aged 66 and over. For a deeper comparison, see varenicline vs cytisine vs NRT on the NHS.
What happened to Swap to Stop?
In April 2023 the UK government announced Swap to Stop, a national scheme in which councils and partners would offer a million smokers in England a free vaping starter kit. The NHS says your local service may offer a free e-cigarette starter pack, but what is on offer varies by area, so ask your service directly. Vape rules have also changed since then, and our explainer on UK vape rules covers the latest position.
If you want to start with patches before you book, our guide to getting free nicotine patches lists every low-cost route across the UK.
Is it free? Prescription charges explained
The adviser support from NHS stop smoking services is free in England, Scotland and Wales, and Northern Ireland has its own local services. Whether you pay anything for treatment depends on where you live and how your local service supplies it.
| Nation | Adviser support | Medicines |
|---|---|---|
| England | Free | Services make treatment easy and affordable. Items on an NHS prescription cost £9.90 each unless you are exempt. |
| Scotland | Free | All NHS stop smoking medication is free, and NRT is free from pharmacies, advisers or GPs. |
| Wales | Free (Help Me Quit) | Up to £250 worth of free NRT, plus help to access varenicline if suitable. |
| Northern Ireland | Local cessation services listed by Stop Smoking NI | Ask your stop smoking service, GP or pharmacy. |
In England, the charge applies to each item rather than each prescription, according to the NHS. If you qualify for free NHS prescriptions, you pay nothing for prescribed items. Many services supply NRT directly, so ask how your area works at the first session.
Even when you do pay, treatment usually costs far less than smoking. Our UK smoking statistics guide puts the scale of smoking in context.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Each nation runs its own service under its own name, but the model is similar: a trained adviser plus treatment.
Scotland: Quit Your Way Scotland
Quit Your Way Scotland offers advice and support to anyone trying to stop smoking, with local help across the country. Call 0800 84 84 84. NHS inform states that all NHS stop smoking medication and support in Scotland is free, and that NRT is available to everyone free from a community pharmacy, stop smoking adviser or GP.
Wales: Help Me Quit
Help Me Quit is the free NHS stop smoking support in Wales. You can choose telephone support, one-to-one sessions in a community centre, hospital or pharmacy, or group sessions. The service offers up to £250 worth of free NRT, can help you access varenicline if it suits you, and supports you for up to 12 weeks. Freephone 0800 085 2219.
Northern Ireland: Stop Smoking NI
In Northern Ireland, nidirect points people to Stop Smoking NI for information on local cessation services. You can also ask your GP or local pharmacy for help.
How well do the services work?
England publishes yearly data on stop smoking services through the OHID Local Tobacco Control Profiles. The headline measure is how many people who set a quit date report being smoke-free four weeks later.
| Year | Quit dates set | Self-reported quitters at 4 weeks | Success rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023/24 | 193,505 | 104,125 | 53.8% |
| 2024/25 | 238,166 | 127,541 | 53.6% |
More than half of people who set a quit date with a service in 2024/25 were smoke-free at four weeks. The same data break results down by the type of support and aid people chose:
| Support or aid | Success rate |
|---|---|
| Group support in person | 61.7% |
| One-to-one support combined with a mobile app | 60.3% |
| Telephone support | 58.1% |
| One-to-one support in person | 47.7% |
| Mobile app only | 35.1% |
| NRT and nicotine vapes together | 61.0% |
| Varenicline only | 58.0% |
| Nicotine vapes only | 56.2% |
| No licensed medication or vape | 39.0% |
Read these figures with care. Quitting is self-reported at four weeks, and people choose their own support type, so the groups are not directly comparable. Long-term quit rates are lower than four-week rates. Still, the pattern is consistent: people who used a stop smoking aid did better than people who used none.
Using an app between appointments
Your adviser sees you for a short session, often weekly. Cravings do not keep office hours. The official data above hint at why combining human support with digital tools makes sense: one-to-one support plus a mobile app did better than either alone in 2024/25.
Here is how to make an app work with your service rather than instead of it:
- Log cravings to bring to sessions. iQuit lets you record each craving with its trigger and intensity, so you can show your adviser exactly when urges hit.
- Get support at 2am. iQuit’s SOS craving support offers breathing exercises, distraction tips and craving timers, and its AI coach adapts to your progress between appointments.
- Watch your progress. A dashboard of days smoke-free, cigarettes avoided and money saved gives you something to report at every check-in.
The NHS also has its own free Quit Smoking app. We compare it feature by feature in the NHS app vs iQuit, and if you plan to quit in October, see our pick of the best apps for Stoptober.
NHS Stop Smoking Service FAQ
Is the NHS stop smoking service free?
Yes. The NHS says local stop smoking services are free. In England, services make treatment affordable, but medicines on an NHS prescription cost £9.90 per item unless you are exempt. In Scotland all NHS stop smoking medication is free, and Help Me Quit in Wales offers up to £250 of free NRT (NHS, NHS inform, Help Me Quit).
Can I refer myself to a stop smoking service?
Yes. You can phone your local stop smoking service to book an appointment, or call the National Smokefree Helpline on 0300 123 1044 in England. Your GP, pharmacist or health visitor can also refer you, but you do not need their referral first (NHS).
How long does NHS stop smoking support last?
Services usually offer support for up to 12 weeks. At each meeting you receive a supply of, or prescription for, your stop smoking treatment and have your carbon monoxide level measured. You also get an emergency number for out-of-hours cravings (NHS).
Can I get a free vape from the NHS?
Vapes cannot be prescribed on the NHS because none are licensed medicines, but your local stop smoking service may offer a free e-cigarette starter pack with advice on using it. The 2023 Swap to Stop scheme funded starter kits in England; ask your local service what is available now (NHS, GOV.UK).
What happens at the first stop smoking appointment?
You talk about why you smoke, why you want to quit and any past attempts, and you choose a quit date. You are offered a carbon monoxide breath test and discuss treatments such as NRT, varenicline, cytisinicline or bupropion, or using a vape (NHS).
Do NHS stop smoking services actually work?
In England in 2024/25, 238,166 people set a quit date with a service and 127,541, or 53.6%, reported being smoke-free four weeks later. People who used no stop smoking aid had lower four-week success than those who did. These are self-reported short-term results (OHID Fingertips).
Can under-18s use a stop smoking service?
Treatment options differ for young people. NICE says cytisinicline, varenicline and bupropion should not be offered to people under 18, and advice on nicotine products should be appropriate for age. Contact your local service to ask whether it supports young people and how (NICE NG209).
Can I use a quit smoking app with an NHS service?
Yes. In England in 2024/25, people who combined one-to-one support with a mobile app had a four-week success rate of 60.3%, compared with 35.1% for an app alone. An app works best as a companion to adviser support (OHID Fingertips).
Support for the hours between appointments
Pair your NHS adviser with iQuit: log cravings and triggers to bring to your sessions, get SOS craving support day or night, and watch your days smoke-free and savings grow. Free on Google Play and the App Store.
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