‘Swap to stop’: UK launches scheme to encourage smokers to switch to e-cigarettes

The British government is hoping to encourage one million smokers in England to kick the habit under a new scheme that will provide them with free e-cigarettes and behavioural support.

The aim is to make the country smoke-free by 2030, the Department of Health in London announced on Tuesday. ‘Smoke-free’ is defined as a smoking rate of less than five per cent of the population.

Dubbed ‘swap to stop’, the programme includes other measures, including financial incentives in the form of vouchers for pregnant women to give up smoking. Almost one in ten women in England still smoke during pregnancy.

The government estimates that the scheme will cost £45 million – or €51.3 million – over two years.

Westminster wants to leave it up to local authorities to decide who gets the free vapes. They could also supplement the programme with local measures.

“Up to two out of three people who smoke throughout their lives die from it,” Health Secretary Neil O’Brien is quoted as saying in a Ministry statement. “Cigarettes are the only product on sale which will kill you if used correctly,” he added.

Anti-tobacco organisations, however, say the package of measures is insufficient and say greater efforts are needed if the goal of becoming smoke-free by 2030 is to be achieved.

The switch to e-cigarettes is also controversial. The vapour from e-cigarettes also has addictive potential, critics note. UK government figures for 2021 showed that about nine per cent of schoolchildren between the ages of 11 and 15 used e-cigarettes, up from six per cent in 2018.