Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask 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.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of cost of providing an 'Iron Dome' style defence system to protect the United Kingdom from missile attack.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Iron Dome is Israel’s approach to Integrated Air and Missile Defence, it is based upon the threat Israel faces, its geography and capability. The Strategic Defence Review has considered similar factors for the UK Homeland and announced up to £1 billion investment in air and missile defence of the UK. Specific decisions on the UK’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence will follow through the Defence Investment Plan which is in development within the Ministry of Defence and due for publication in autumn 2025.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much tax revenue they have collected from the vaping industry in each of the past three years for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue & Customs does not hold readily available tax revenue data from the vaping industry.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the economic impact of the closure of Heathrow Airport due to the fire at the North Hyde substation on 21 March.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The UK aviation sector is predominantly privately operated therefore airports are responsible for managing their own contingency plans and ensuring that they are robust and meet their own individual circumstances.
The Department does not formally assess the impact of individual resilience issues due to the complexity of the impact and vast range of indirect impacts across the economy.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what contribution, if any, the vaping industry makes to the cost of the appropriate disposal of vapes.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost to the environment of the disposal of vapes.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what protections, if any, they have secured for the UK pharmaceutical industry in relation to the imposition of tariffs by the United States of America.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
On 8 May, the UK government announced a landmark economic deal with the United States, making the UK the first country to get an agreement with President Trump.
The agreement will secure the UK preferential access to the US market for UK pharmaceuticals in case of new US tariffs being introduced in the future, further to any section 232 investigations. These conversations are ongoing, and we will work closely with the US administration to get the best deal for our pharma industry.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many company directors and senior executives in the water industry have been charged with criminal offences in relation to pollution in rivers and waterways in each of the last three years.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For too long, water companies have discharged unacceptable levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas.
The Environment Agency (EA) generally commences criminal proceedings by way of summons. As of the date of this correspondence, no summons have been granted in respect of company directors and senior executives in the water industry over the past three years.
The EA is currently carrying out their largest ever criminal investigation into potential widespread non-compliance by water companies at over 2,000 sewage treatment works.
To drive this forward, the EA has hired 380 additional regulatory staff to carry out inspections and other enforcement activity. The most serious offences trigger a criminal investigation that could see water company fines and criminal prosecution for water bosses.
Earlier this year Ofwat proposed fines of £168 million against the first three investigated companies. These fines are alongside proposed enforcement orders, which require each company to rectify issues to bring them into compliance. OfWat’s investigations into eight further water companies continue.
In addition, the Water (Special Measures) Act has introduced a duty for water companies to publish data related to discharges from all emergency overflows within one hour of the discharge beginning. This will enable the public and regulators to see where, and how often, overflows are discharging and hold water companies to account.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that senior managers in the water industry are not awarded inappropriate bonuses.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For too long, water companies have discharged unacceptable levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas. Water bosses taking bonuses when their companies criminally pollute our waterways is unacceptable.
As part of our Plan for Change, we’ve delivered on our promise to put water companies under special measures through our landmark Water (Special Measures) Act.
As part of the Act, Ofwat has new powers to ban the payment of bonuses if performance standards are not met. This means executives will no longer be able to take home eye-watering bonuses where companies fail to meet standards on environmental performance, financial resilience, customer outcomes or criminal liability.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will provide compensation to veterans, and where appropriate their descendants, for injuries or illnesses caused by radiation exposure from nuclear tests (1) in the UK, or (2) authorised by the UK.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
This Government is deeply grateful to all those who participated in the UK nuclear testing programme. We recognise their Service and the huge contribution they have made to the UK’s security.
Around 22,000 Nuclear Test Veterans were considered in an analysis of the data in the Nuclear Weapons Test Participants Study – a long-term epidemiological study of the health of veterans who were present at UK nuclear testing between 1952 and 1967. Four analyses of this data to date, concluded that Nuclear Test Veterans have a similar incidence of cancer and, in general, a longer healthy life expectancy than the control group. The possibility that test participation caused an increase in risk of leukaemia cannot be ruled out. Our policy is therefore to award a war pension for claims for leukaemia having clinical onset within 25 years of presence at test sites.
Nuclear Test Veterans and their entitled family members are already eligible to apply for compensation under the War Pension Scheme. There is no time limit for claiming, however if a claim is made more than seven years after termination of service, as would be the case for Nuclear Test Veterans, the claimant is granted the benefit of doubt when there is uncertainty about whether the disablement is linked to or worsened by their service. Factors such as being on operations or in a hazardous environment can support a service-related claim. Claims handlers will review historical records, including medical records, to establish a causal link to service for Nuclear Test Veterans seeking compensation.
This Government has no current plans to develop a specific compensation scheme for either Nuclear Test Veterans or their families.
Ministers are keen to engage with the issue of records head on and have repeatedly met with MPs and groups in the nuclear test veteran community to discuss a range of topics. The Minister for Veterans and People, Al Carns, has commissioned officials across the Ministry of Defence, as a priority, to look at what information may be held by the Department. An update on the progress to date will be provided before summer recess.
Four analyses of an independent epidemiological study have previously been carried out, the latest report was published in 2022. This report concluded that overall levels of mortality and cancer incidence in nuclear test veterans have continued to be similar to those in a matched Service control group, and lower than in the general population.