Use of stop smoking services has plummeted amid a surge in the popularity of e-cigarettes, it is claimed.

The number of people trying to stop smoking through the NHS has dipped in both Kirklees and Calderdale, figures show.

They have dropped by almost a third in Kirklees and around 18% in Calderdale.

In Kirklees almost 1,000 fewer people signed up in 2014/15 compared to the year before.

The news comes on the day Government health officials said they wanted to see GPs able to prescribe e-cigarettes on the NHS.

They published a review that said vaping is 95% less harmful than tobacco.

Last week the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) called for an extension on the ban on smoking in public to pub gardens, school gates, parks and outdoor areas of restaurants.

It said the ban, introduced in 2007, had “de-normalised” smoking and creating further exclusion zones would make the habit more inconvenient for smokers.

But the pro-smoking lobby said furthering the ban would “discriminate” against smokers.

Chief executive of the RSPH, Shirley Cramer, said nicotine was no more harmful than caffeine and urged a greater use of e-cigarettes, which the charity would like to see the products renamed as “nicotine sticks or vapourisers”.

She said: “Over 100,000 people die from smoking-related disease every year in the UK. While we have made good progress to reduce smoking rates, one in five of us still does.

“Most people smoke through habit and to get their nicotine hit. Clearly we would rather people didn’t smoke, but in line with Nice guidance on reducing the harm from tobacco, using safer forms of nicotine such as e-cigarettes is effective in helping people quit.

“Getting people on to nicotine rather than using tobacco would make a big difference to the public’s health - clearly there are issues in terms of having smokers addicted to nicotine, but this would move us on from having a serious and costly public health issue from smoking-related disease to instead address the issue of addiction to a substance which in and of itself is not too dissimilar to caffeine addiction.”

Director of pro-smoking Group, Simon Clark, said: “While it makes sense to encourage smokers to switch from combustible cigarettes to electronic cigarettes, public health campaigns should be based on education, not coercion and prohibition.

“Banning smoking outside pubs and bars would discriminate against adults who enjoy smoking.

“Renaming e-cigarettes is a silly idea. It ignores the fact that e-cigs are popular because they mimic the act of smoking. The name is part of their appeal.”

Meanwhile, Ash (Action on Smoking and Health) said research had found no evidence that young people are being recruited to smoking through using e-cigarettes, despite a rise in the number of 11 to 18-year-olds who claim to have tried a vaporiser.

Regular smoking among 11 to 15-year-olds is at an all-time low of 3%, according to Government figures.