Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the regulations governing the sale of laser pens and other such devices.

Under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 only laser pointers that are considered to be safe for normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions of use should be made available to the public through general sale. It is an offence for manufacturers to market or supply dangerous products to consumers.

Last year the Government issued a call for evidence on the market and use of laser pointers to better understand the nature and scale of the hazards associated. As a result, the Government has introduced new measures to tackle the sale of unsafe laser pointers, including additional funding for enhanced border checks to stop high-powered lasers entering the country and working with manufacturers and retailers to improve labelling to help consumers identify unsafe lasers.

A Government Bill to introduce a new offence of shining or directing a laser beam at a vehicle is currently before Parliament.