NICOTINE patches and gum will be offered to smokers as young as 12, following a project which started in the North-East.

The Department of Health has given approval for the treatment to be offered to child tobacco addicts across England and Wales without their parents' consent.

The move to extend the initiative to the rest of the country comes after the success of a pilot scheme in the region.

As part of the extended scheme, all six secondary schools in the Derwentside district of County Durham will offer nicotine replacement therapy to children aged 12 to 17.

School nurses will be able to offer patches to children who show signs of being addicted to cigarettes.

Health professionals believe it will substantially improve the chances of young people kicking the habit at an early age.

Under the Government's plans, children will be able to get patches and gum prescribed free by their GP, and may be able to buy them over the counter at newsagents and petrol stations - as the Government aims to change the law restricting who can sell the treatments.

A spokesman for the British Medical Association said: "Helping young people give up can prevent a lifetime of ill health and death from lung cancer."

According to research, smokers are twice as likely to succeed in quitting if they use gum and patches but, until now, youngsters under 18 have been advised against using them, as the patches have only been tested on adults.

Now the Government has been told by the Committee on the Safety of Medicines that it is better for youngsters to use patches and gum than for them to continue smoking.

Nationally, about one per cent of 11-year-olds are smokers but, among children aged 11 to 15, the figures rise to seven per cent of boys and ten per cent of girls, while among 16-year-olds, as many as 16 per cent of boys and 26 per cent of girls regularly smoke.

The Derwentside scheme follows a small pilot programme at Greencroft School, in Annfield Plain, last year. Just under half the small sample of children stopped smoking.