Cigarette sales fell by 6.9 per cent last month after the smoking ban was introduced in England and Wales.

Smokers bought just over three billion cigarettes in Britain in the four weeks to July 28, down from the same period last year, according to the consumer research group AC Nielsen. Consumption had already been falling by about 2 per cent a year.

Anti-smoking campaigners yesterday welcomed the steep decline, which is in line with similar falls that followed the introduction of smoking bans in Ireland in 2004 and Scotland last year. In Ireland, cigarette sales fell by 16 per cent in six months.

“It’s very encouraging,” Amanda Sandford of the health campaign group ASH, said. “We hope this is indicative of people taking steps to give up smoking altogether.”

A spokesman for Imperial Tobacco, the biggest player in the British cigarette market, said: “What tends to happen following the introduction of smoking bans is an initial sharp drop in volumes, which then ameliorates over time.”

He said that the wet weather in July may also have served to reduce volumes by discouraging smokers from using the outdoor smoking areas provided by many pubs and restaurants.

The total value of cigarettes sales in the UK last year was £11.5 billion. Many cigarette manufacturers are not unduly concerned by the drop and they are expected to ratchet up prices to keep revenues on track.

Before the ban, Imperial Tobacco, which controls more than 46 per cent of total volumes, said that it expected duty-paid market volumes to fall by 3 per cent over 12 months.

British smokers are expected to consume 48 billion cigarettes this year. Borders, the book chain, said that sales of anti-smoking books by Alan Carr and the hypnotist Paul McKenna have risen by almost 260 per cent on average across their British stores.

The AC Nielsen figures showed that the top-selling cigarette brands last month were Lambert & Butler, with 16.2 per cent of the market, followed by Richmond with 15.5 per cent and Mayfair with 13.6 per cent.

The ban on smoking has been nominated for the Vodafone Live Music Awards, competing in the live impact category against the singer Prince, Beth Ditto’s band the Gossip and the Canadian group Arcade Fire.

Stubbed out

3 billion

Sticks sold in the four weeks to July 28

700,000

People expected to quit this year

235%

Nicotine replacement patch sales last month compared with June

Source: Times database

The ban on smoking has been nominated for the Vodafone Live Music Awards, competing in the live impact category against the singer Prince, Beth Ditto’s band the Gossip and the Canadian group Arcade Fire.

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