Quality standard

This quality standard covers reducing and preventing tobacco use in adults, young people and children. It includes interventions to discourage people from taking up smoking, tobacco control strategies and smokefree policies. It is particularly relevant to local authorities, schools and colleges, employers and NHS service providers. It describes high-quality care in priority areas for improvement.

It does not cover support for people to stop smoking or harm-reduction approaches to smoking, which are covered by NICE’s quality standards on smoking: supporting people to stop and smoking: harm reduction.

How to use NICE quality standards and how we develop them

Quality standards help you improve the quality of care you provide or commission. They apply in England and Wales (see the UK government website and Welsh government website). Decisions on how they apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland are made by ministers in the Scottish government and Northern Ireland Executive.

Find out how to use quality standards and how we develop them. We check our quality standards every August to make sure they are up to date.