JUST a third of the people using the NHS Stop Smoking Service in a borough managed to quit, new figures have revealed.

Between April 2017 and March this year, 1,287 people in Blackburn with Darwen signed up to the service and set themselves a date to quit.

At follow up meetings four weeks later 425 people said they had given up smoking, according to data from NHS England.

That is just 33 per cent of people which is below the average rate for England of 51 per cent during the period, while the average for the North West was 47 per cent.

The Stop Smoking Service has been provided by local authorities rather than the NHS since 2013, while it offers support with one-to-one counselling or group sessions.

Medicines that help with nicotine cravings can also be prescribed, while some people also use over the counter products.

Hazel Cheeseman, director of policy at campaign group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said: “We want to see investment going back into funding these services through local authorities.

"We need the NHS to step up in its referral of people to stop smoking services and we’d like to see greater investment in mass media."

The total cost of the Stop Smoking Service in Blackburn with Darwen was £211,489, which is equivalent to £498 for each person that quit.

Latest figures from Public Health England show that 17 per cent of the adult population of Blackburn with Darwen are smokers.

But the number of people using the service across the country has been falling and it went down compared to the previous 12 month period in Blackburn with Darwen.

ASH said that the popularity of e-cigarettes as an aid to quitting explained some of the decline in users of the Stop Smoking Service across England but not all of it.

The group said tighter council budgets, less publicity nationally about services and an apparent reduction in GPs prompting people to take up the service may also be to blame.

In Lancashire, The Quit Squad (a service delivered by Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust and funded by Lancashire County Council) provides a free stop smoking service.

Drop in clinics and one to one appointments are in a variety of locations, such as NHS health centres, hospitals, leisure and children's centres.