Fireworks: Public Sales

Adrian Bailey Excerpts

Monday 26th November 2018 Westminster Hall

[Mr Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West) (Lab/Co-op)]

May I express my pleasure at serving under your chairmanship, Mr Howarth? I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington North (Helen Jones) on securing the debate and on the comprehensive way in which she outlined the issues that have generated this petition and the public support for it.

I was sitting slightly uncomfortably when the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Alex Chalk) described the idiots who let off fireworks in the street. I am actually a native of Cheltenham, and in my youth I let off fireworks in Cheltenham’s streets, which I am incredibly embarrassed about. However, that was my generation, in common with the situation outlined by my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington North, although my generation is actually a little earlier than hers.

There are certain things that I put forward in mitigation. First, those fireworks were not as powerful, noisy or dangerous as now, although they were still quite capable of causing disruption and damaging people. Secondly, if my parents, or their neighbours, had found out, certain vigorous sanctions would have been applied to me. I am not sure whether there is still that powerful social pressure on curbing antisocial behaviour in the way that there was then. There is a range of reasons for that, but it is not really within the remit of the debate to go into them all.

However, things have undoubtedly changed. First, in the monocultural society that I grew up in, we had fireworks only on 5 November, or, if someone was a bit naughty, they would let some off before. Generally speaking, however, there would be only a week or so of firework activity. It is totally different now, because we live in a multicultural society, which I am very glad about. Many ethnic groups and religions have their own celebrations, some of which they like to enhance with the use of fireworks. I welcome that; we cannot confine this particular pleasure to one ethnic group in our society. Secondly, it has become more and more popular to use fireworks during other events—birthdays and other celebrations as well. The potential range of dates and the opportunity to buy fireworks, notwithstanding our legislation, are that much greater, with the potential disruption therefore equally greater.

I was around in the House during debates on fireworks legislation that took place in various steps between 2003 and 2005. I remember that the situation was getting absolutely intolerable at that time; fireworks seemed to go on for about six weeks, at all times of day and so on and so forth. That gave the impetus for that private Member’s Bill—and the last Labour Government’s backing of it—which brought in many of the restrictions that we now have. I have to say that, after those restrictions were brought in, there was undoubtedly a substantial diminution in the nuisance caused by fireworks.

However, things have been getting worse, which I put down to, essentially, cuts to our public services and to those agencies responsible for ensuring that our laws are properly exercised. On 19 October, I went out on patrol with officers from West Midlands police, who said that we were just entering into “nuisance fortnight”, which covers Hallowe’en and 5 November and for which all their leave was cancelled, demonstrating the impact that that period has on a key public service.

Of course, if the police are concentrating on dealing with the antisocial use of fireworks, they cannot concentrate on other aspects as well. For other services, such as the ambulance service, the NHS and the fire service, the same applies. The cuts to our public services mean that the control that might have been possible a few years ago cannot be exercised.

I do not think I have ever known a fixed penalty notice to be served on somebody who has used fireworks in an antisocial way. I do not know whether there are statistics that demonstrate that they are served on those people, but I certainly think it is fair to say that, whatever the regulations, in the culture and climate out there it is believed that no action will be taken against someone who uses fireworks antisocially.

There are many examples of people using fireworks antisocially in the Black country and Birmingham, but two are most conspicuous. Last year in Birmingham, one man died of burns when four people threw an industrial firework into his house, which set the house alight. This year in Smethwick, in an adjoining constituency to mine, a firework was thrown into a crowded pub. Happily there were no serious injuries, but the pub itself was severely damaged by the fire that ensued.

It is not really surprising that none of the perpetrators of those particular actions have been arrested or anything. With the cuts to West Midlands police—more than 2,000 officers have been cut over the last six or seven years—and the way the force is stretched, it has other things to concentrate on. None the less, that sort of crime is as devastating to those on the wrong end of it as any other sort of crime.

Many Members have talked about animals. On my life’s journey, I have been a dog owner. I love animals. I am concerned that—I assume because of cuts—the regulations on the number of decibels allowable for fireworks are not being enforced. Up until a year or two ago, it was quite normal for tests to be carried out on fireworks, and a heck of a lot were found to make noise of over 120 dB. That testing has stopped, and the only reasonable interpretation for why is that there is neither the funding nor the people to do it. That is really serious for animals. We talk about noise and animals, but we forget that animals, for the most part, have far more sensitive hearing than us, and if a noise disturbs us, the corresponding impact on animals will be devastating.

While there is a good case for looking at our laws, particularly on time of use—fireworks can be bought only at a particular time but can be let off three months later; storing fireworks presents another issue—the restrictions in respect of allowing them to be used only on private land are not being enforced at all. Fireworks are let off on public highways and so on.

We must invest more money in the enforcement of existing regulations. There is no point in introducing new regulations if they are not backed up. Above all, we need to take a long, hard look at restrictions on the usage of fireworks—where they may be used and at what time—allied with investment in the services that actually take action against those who breach the regulations.

--- Later in debate ---

[Kelly Tolhurst]

I thank the hon. Lady for making that point. As some hon. Members have already outlined, when the last debate on this subject took place in January, we were just setting up the Office for Product Safety and Standards. We talked then about the collection of data, and my Department is working with National Trading Standards to consider ways to collect data to back up any proposed changes.

To recap, criminal events in which people use fireworks are investigated by police, if they are reported. In some cases, they attract fines and, in others, imprisonment.

[Mr Bailey]

I do not think that anyone would say that the police do not investigate. We are saying that the level of resources is such that they are not often able to carry out the sort of investigation that enables them to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice. Can the Minister give me an indication of just how many investigations have taken place, how many fixed penalty notices have been given and how many perpetrators of serious firework-related crime have been prosecuted?

[Kelly Tolhurst]

I would like to refer to the hon. Gentleman’s comment and also to his earlier remark about an incident in which a firework was thrown into a pub. He suggested that it was not investigated—