Lord Udny-Lister (Con)

My Lords, my noble friend Lord Mott is unfortunately ill, so with the permission of the Committee I shall move this amendment for him. I have made a few notes of my own, so this is my speech, not his, but I feel there should be a debate on the amendment, which I fully support, as Ministers should be afforded the powers, through the Bill, to regulate the design and interoperability of products, in order to prohibit the sale of very high puff count vaping devices. The Committee should note that this amendment is entirely necessary to prevent the proliferation of the very high puff count vapes that are currently flooding the UK market and causing a lot of concern for enforcement bodies, teachers, parents and health professionals, a point that has been made previously. There are documented cases of children being hospitalised because of illicit high puff count vapes, and according to one trading standards report that I read, officers seized a vape that was seven times the legal limit, containing over 9,000 puffs. The scale of the challenge is stark. Of the 13.5 million vapes purchased each week, it is estimated that some 3 million are big-puff devices, and nearly half of all 16 to 34 year-olds who vape are using these devices. What concerns me is that, often, these devices are deliberately engineered to circumvent regulation. Often, they present the superficial appearance of being reusable, yet they rely on the same non-replaceable mesh coils that lead to their disposal once the coil burns out. I note that Defra has already issued guidelines on what constitutes a genuinely reusable vape but, every day, irresponsible manufacturers are ignoring this advice, and it is therefore time that we put this on to a statutory footing.