Pharmacies supported 70 per cent of attempts to quit smoking in Scotland last year, with a record one in 10 smokers trying to quit through NHS services, official figures have revealed.

The data, released by the Scottish government last week, showed that a record 108,269 smokers tried to quit using NHS smoking cessation services in 2011, up 29 per cent on 2010.

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	The figures followed the introduction in 2008 of a new contract for pharmacy smoking cessation services in Scotland, said the report, which highlighted that in England pharmacy services made up only 18 per cent of quit attempts on the NHS in 2011.

And pharmacy's contribution to quit attempts in Scotland may be even higher as "late receipt of data from some pharmacy services" was expected, the government report noted.

Lanarkshire had the highest proportion of Scottish smokers trying to quit, with around 14 per cent of all smokers in the region making a quit attempt.

Greater Glasgow and Clyde had the second highest uptake, with around 12.5 per cent of all smokers, which the government report said reflected "an above average percentage of cases coming from pharmacies".

Michael Matheson, minister for public health in Scotland, welcomed the report's figures, praising the high quit rates in deprived areas and an almost 50 per cent increase in quit attempts among pregnant women, rising from 1,846 in 2010 to 2,700 in 2011.

The number of quit attempts successful at one month was up 24 per cent from 32,857 in 2010 to 40,857 (38 per cent of quit attempts) last year.

By comparison, 44 per cent of those using pharmacy services in England to stop smoking between April and September 2011 had successfully quit after a month.