Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the number of people who (a) have been smokers in each of the last five years and (b) quit smoking in the last 12 months.

The estimated number of adult smokers in England over 18 years old in each of the last five years (based on the size of the population at that time) is shown in the table below.

The most recent evidence from the University College London Smoking Toolkit Study estimates that 33% of adult smokers (approximately 2.4 million) over the age of 16 tried to quit in the last 12 months, 8% successfully (approximately 584,000).