UK Tobacco control objectives

Current government targets for reducing smoking prevalence in the UK are to achieve a reduction in smoking rates from 26 per cent in 2002 to 21 per cent of the general population by 2010 (Choosing Health - A White Paper on Public Health, 2005).
The NHS National Plan expands upon this with a target of 1.5 million smokers quitting by 2010. This equates to around 125,000 smokers stopping each year. The NHS Cancer Plan prioritises social inequalities in smoking and targets a reduction in smoking in routine manual groups from 31 per cent in 2002 to 26 per cent in 2010.
The NHS National Plan has set out and implemented a number of initiatives aimed at meeting these targets. These have included the NHS stop smoking services, making cessation products available on prescription, the NHS stop smoking helpline (0800 169 0169) and ongoing television adverts and public information campaigns.

No Smoking Day is also a major contributor to achieving smoking prevalence targets. With such high awareness levels, the Day is a focus for many smokers attempting to stop. The No Smoking Day charity works closely with groups involved in smoking cessation to ensure the information and advice given to smokers is the most up-to-date available. Each year more than a million people will attempt to quit on No Smoking Day.
Calls to helplines, sales of stop smoking products and visits to stop smoking services peak on every No Smoking Day, demonstrating the continued impact and effectiveness of the campaign.
On No Smoking Day 2006, call volumes to the NHS stop smoking helpline reached four times the daily average for the rest of the year, with around 12,000 calls made on the Day. Data from the NHS stop smoking services shows that the busiest time of the year is the January to March quarter.