Northumberland smokers offered vape in ‘swap to stop’ scheme

As part of the pilot scheme, free vape starter kits were offered to town council tenants to help them kick the costly and dangerous habit.

They were invited to sign up for the six-week support programme and were offered a choice of products, strengths and flavours to allow smokers to find the best product for them.

The swap to stop scheme is part of a government pilot to help people quit. It is working with councils and others to offer a million smokers across England a free vaping starter kit -the first initiative of its kind in the world. The scheme is part of a series of new measures to help the government meet its ambition of being smokefree by 2030 - reducing smoking rates to five per cent or less.