Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to extend the swap to stop scheme for smoking cessation; and whether he plans to allocate ring-fenced funding for a future extension of that scheme.

The Swap to Stop scheme provides local services with vape starter kits to support smokers to quit, alongside behavioural support. The Swap to Stop scheme was launched in November 2023, and has provided local services with vape starter kits to the value of £3.2 million in 2023/24 and £17 million in 2024/25. This funding is ringfenced and is supplementary to the additional £70 million of ringfenced funding for Local Stop Smoking Services, along with existing funding through the Public Health Grant.

The extension of the Swap to Stop scheme for the coming year, 2025/26, was recently announced, with up to £19 million of funding available. Future settlements for this programme are being considered as part of the Spending Review.