Abstract: A gas filling apparatus comprising a lance and control unit remote from the lance is disclosed. The lance has a dispensing nozzle for dispensing gas through an aperture. The lance additionally has a manually operable switch for sending a signal to the control unit to commence dispensing of gas. The provision of the manually operable switch on the lance should result in less errors being made during the filling process, particularly where a plurality of lances are simultaneously operated by a single operator. The lance may additionally comprise a visual indicator indicating the state reached in the dispensing cycle.