Aiming to improve the health of expectant mothers and their families the White Paper “Smoking Kills” (DH 1998) set a specific target for reducing smoking during pregnancy:

Targets:

• To reduce the percentage of women who smoke during pregnancy from 23% to 15% by the year 2010; with a fall to 18% by the year 2005. This will mean approximately 55,000 fewer women in England who smoke during pregnancy.

The following document sets out what organisations need to do over the next three years to reduce health inequalities which is a priority, Improvement, expansion and reform - the next 3 years: priorities and planning framework 2003-2006

• Deliver a one percentage point reduction per year in the proportion of women continuing to smoke throughout pregnancy, focusing especially on smokers from disadvantaged groups as a contribution to the national target to reduce by at least 10% the gap in mortality between “routine and manual” groups and the population as a whole by 2010, starting with children under one year.

The Healthcare Commission published its Performance indicators for Smoking in Pregnancy for Primary Care Trusts.  They can be found here