More than 300 Doncaster smokers handed free vape to help them quit

More than 300 smokers in Doncaster have been handed a free vape to help them quit, NHS figures show.

Doncaster gave a vape kit to about one in 110 of its smokers through the national Swap to Stop scheme, against about one in 60 across England, the study reveals.

In Doncaster, 320 people were given a free vape kit to help them stop smoking through the national Swap to Stop scheme in the year to March 2026, NHS figures show.

That is about one in 110 of the area's estimated 35,600 smokers, ranking 105th of the 148 council areas in England with figures.

Across England, 83,406 people were given a kit, about one in 60 smokers.

Elsewhere in South Yorkshire, Rotherham handed out 879 kits (about one in 35 smokers), Barnsley 517 (about one in 50) and Sheffield 227 (about one in 250).

Across Yorkshire and the Humber as a whole it was about one in 55 smokers.

Shane Margereson, founder of Ecigone (https://ecigone.co.uk/), a five-time award-winning UK online vape shop, said the figures showed how much the help on offer depends on where a smoker lives.

Mr Margereson said, "Where you live has always made a difference to the help you get to stop smoking, but I didn't expect the gap to be this big.

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“In a few areas a big share of smokers were handed a kit in a single year, and in others the scheme barely shows up in the figures."

What is Swap to Stop?

The government announced Swap to Stop in April 2023, saying almost one in five smokers in England would be given a vape starter kit alongside support to quit. Each council designs its own scheme, including deciding which smokers to prioritise.

Since April, the money for the scheme has been folded into the public health grant councils receive, ring-fenced for stop smoking services, which leaves each council to decide how it runs its free vape offer.

Mr Margereson said, "A starter kit is only part of it. The schemes were set up to give people someone to show them how it works, which nicotine strength to start on, and to check in after the first few weeks, which is what local stop smoking teams do."

He added, "Vaping is one of the most widely used ways to move off cigarettes in the UK and is supported by the NHS as a stop-smoking tool. A pod kit with nic salts gives you the nicotine and the hand-to-mouth habit while cutting out cigarette smoke."

The NHS says vapes are "likely to be far less harmful than cigarettes" and can help people quit smoking for good, but they are "not recommended for non-smokers".