Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of expanding the swap to stop scheme to include smoking cessation products such as nicotine replacement therapies.

The Swap to Stop programme has been developed to provide smokers with more choice by providing the option of accessing free vapes to support quit attempts. This offer includes expert support provided by local stop smoking services.

Medicinally licensed nicotine replacement therapies are already available to smokers via prescription or voucher. Stop smoking service data suggests that 69% of 176,566 stop smoking service users accessed licensed nicotine replacement therapy in 2022/23. Whilst there is not currently a medicinally licensed vape, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency stands ready to support a future medicinally licensed vaping product should industry come forward with a successful candidate.