Member

The noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, predicted what I was going to say, so I will endorse what she said. To ensure the successful implementation of measures in the Bill, we have provided £10 million of new funding for trading standards this year. This funding is being used to boost the trading standards workforce by recruiting new apprentices and to support other enforcement activity, such as additional seizures of illicit vapes. I am pleased to say that 94 apprentices are being recruited by trading standards, an increase from our original plan of 80 apprentices. I can tell the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, that we will continue to provide funding to support those apprentices over the next three years, as they complete their training. For me, that is a way of looking forward to make sure that we have the workforce and resource in place. I hope that that provides some reassurance, but, again, we will keep it under review.