STOP-smoking services in the North-East had the lowest rate of successful quitters in the country last year, Government figures have revealed.

The leaders of Fresh, the region’s drive to tackle the worst rates of smoking-related illness and death in England, said the North-East was being successful in getting a high percentage of smokers to attend services, but many of those attending lacked the motivation to give up.

The study found of 26,343 people who accessed the services in the region last year, 12,035 or 46 per cent reported themselves as having been successful in quitting. The success rate was up on the previous year’s figure of 43 per cent.

North Yorkshire saw a 52 per cent success rate last year, while in Darlington the rate was 45 per cent and in Hartlepool 39 per cent.

Services in County Durham were among the best performing in the region.

The report found just 37 per cent of women in Redcar and Cleveland reported themselves as having quit, while 45 per cent of men in the area did.

Older people and those in higher paid professions in the region were found to be the most successful at quitting and students the least, while only 34 per cent of 1,499 pregnant women using the region’s services said they had quit.

Martyn Willmore, of Fresh, said smoking in the North-East had dropped to 18.7 per cent, the lowest level on record, and fewer people were accessing services due to the popularity of e-cigarettes.

He said: “We are very good at getting people to use the services, but clearly there is work to be done on increasing the number who quit. We know that smoking is strongly linked with deprivation and the figures show stark differences between professions.”

Mr Willmore said it was important the most successful model of services for quitting continued to be backed by the region’s councils.

He added: “Central specialist teams, supported by pharmacies and GP surgeries, is increasingly coming under pressure with cuts to local authority funding.”