Parliament
The latest news from Parliament revolves around this week’s popular topic – disposable vapes.
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by Dave Cross
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Ben Everitt, the Conservative MP for Milton Keynes North asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care whether steps are being taken to ensure that local Trading Standards are investigating e-liquid capacity in notified e-cigarette devices and removing from the market any products above the 2ml e-liquid volume limit.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil O'Brien MP told him: “Local enforcement agencies are responsible for ensuring that e-cigarettes, vapes, comply with The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 in the United Kingdom. The Department continues to work with enforcement agencies to ensure these regulations are enforced in England, including related to restrictions on e-liquid capacity and volume.”
The Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Ruth Jones MP asked the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment have been made of the proportion of disposable and all vapes which are recycled.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Rebecca Pow informed her that Defra has not made such an assessment.
The Shadow Minister followed up by asking if the Secretary of State has estimated the cost of the collection and treatment of disposed vapes.
Again, Rebecca Pow informed her that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has not made any such estimate of the cost of the collection and treatment of disposed vapes.
With such a glaring hole in their knowledge, it remains possible that the Government will simply act based on the knowledge of the volume of products reportedly being discarded into the mainstream waste management system.
Finally, Ruth Jones asked the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the value of payments made by importers and manufacturers of vapes per annum to finance the cost of collection and the proper treatment of disposed vapes is.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State replied: “The Department does not hold information on the value of payments made by importers and manufacturers registered under the UK Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations and with an obligation to finance the cost of collection and the proper treatment of household WEEE such as disposed vapes.
“Such matters would be determined by the contractual arrangements between individual obligated businesses and the Producer Compliance Scheme, approved under the regulations, to which they belong to discharge their obligations.”
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.
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