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Council set to spend up to £477,000 on vapes

Monday, 2 March 2026 14:50

By Joe Willis, Local Democracy Reporter

North Yorkshire Council is trying to help residents quit smoking. (Image: Unsplash)

North Yorkshire Council is set to spend up to £477,000 on e-cigarettes to help residents quit smoking.

A report due to be considered by senior councillors later this week recommends launching a procurement process to secure a supplier to provide e-vouchers for e-cigarettes and related products through the council’s Living Well Smokefree service.

The proposed contract would run from July 2026 to July 2029 and would be demand-led, with no guarantee that the full amount would be spent.

The e-cigarettes would be provided free of charge to people accessing the stop smoking service, with costs covered through ring-fenced public health funding.

Council documents state that smoking remains the biggest preventable killer in the UK and is estimated to cost North Yorkshire around £400m a year in health, social care and wider impacts.

Under the proposals, eligible smokers working with Living Well Smokefree advisers would receive a voucher code to redeem online for reusable, rechargeable devices and associated products, with disposable vapes are now banned.

Since e-cigarettes were introduced into the service in July 2023, 487 people have used them as part of their quit attempt, with 363 achieving a successful four-week quit – a reported 75 per cent success rate.

Longer-term figures show 33 per cent remained smoke-free after a year.

The funding forms part of the Government’s Smokefree Generation ambitions, which aim to reduce national smoking prevalence to five per cent by 2030. North Yorkshire has been allocated £642,000 for 2025/26 to support local stop smoking services.

The council says providing access to a range of quit aids – including nicotine replacement therapy and e-cigarettes – is vital to help those who may require multiple attempts to stop smoking.

If approved, the procurement process will begin in the coming months, with the new contract expected to start in July 2026.

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