Parliamentary Matters in the Lords
Our third trip of the week to the Palace of Westminster takes us to the House of Lords, where Lord Bourne is firing out questions like a child with a broken off switch
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by Dave Cross
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Our third trip of the week to the Palace of Westminster takes us to the House of Lords, where Conservative peer Lord Bourne fires questions about Australia, tax, vape disposal and the environment to Lord Livermore and Baroness Hayman. By the end of the article you ought to be enlightened as to the government’s position on these matters.
Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth asked His Majesty's Government what assessment they made of the vape ban in Australia when considering the single-use disposal vape ban in the UK.
For the uninitiated, Australia’s ban has handed control of vape sales over to the criminals operating the black market. Consequently, stores are being burnt to the ground and murders have become commonplace.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), told Lord Bourne: “On 1 June 2025 the sale and supply of disposable vapes across the UK was banned. Officials considered other international bans, such as the one in Australia, as part of the work to develop this policy, but did not formally assess them.”
So, no, it didn’t assess the dire impact of the ban on Australia at all.
The Lord then asked the Government how much tax revenue they have collected from the vaping industry in each of the past three years for which figures are available.
Lord Livermore, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, clarified everything by responding: “HM Revenue & Customs does not hold readily available tax revenue data from the vaping industry.”
Well this isn’t going as predicted, don’t they know Planet of the Vapes promised readers answers?
Lord Bourne turned back to Defra, asking what contribution, if any, the vaping industry makes to the cost of the appropriate disposal of vapes.
Baroness Hayman replied: “The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment regulations make producers responsible for electrical products (including vapes) they place on the market when they become waste. This week, following a consultation under the previous Government, we laid an amending SI to create a new category of electrical equipment for vapes (previously included in category 7: Toys, and Leisure), to ensure vape producers pay their fair market share towards separate collection, treatment, and recycling costs of their products.”
Unbelievable, yet another answer that failed to address the question. We never saw this coming, sorry readers.
Finally, Lord Bourne asked what assessment has been made of the cost to the environment of the disposal of vapes.
Honestly, don’t get your hopes up.
Baroness Hayman told him: “Single-use vapes are a blight on our environment with an estimated 5 million incorrectly disposed of each week. This is why on 1 June 2025 we banned the sale and supply of these products. We have published our impact assessment which considers the environmental, economic and other impacts of this policy and will continue to monitor the impact of the ban.”
Oh well, maybe the House of Commons will do better tomorrow.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
