A skin pricking apparatus including a casing 1, a lancet 15 located within the casing, a firing button 9 arranged to transfer a user applied force to the lancet 15 to drive the lancet through the casing 1, and lancet retaining element 12, 13, 23a,b arranged to substantially prevent movement of the lancet 15 through the casing 1 until the user applied force exceeds a predefined threshold force.
