Fireworks: Sale and Use

Alison Thewliss Excerpts

Monday 8th November 2021 Westminster Hall

[Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Twigg. I want to start by reflecting on the emails that I have had from constituents. They are very clear that fireworks are not just on one night; they are an ongoing problem that lasts for weeks and weeks. Charlie Fairley emailed me on 14 October to say that he had

“already been woken up three nights in a row, with people letting off fireworks in the early hours of the morning.”

Ruth Ewan emailed on 17 October to say that she had already

“reported two incidents to police, kids lighting and throwing fireworks in the middle of the day”.

There was also an incident in which a firework landed very close to a young child in a pram, which was really terrifying. Fortunately, the police were able to find and charge the young people responsible, but that is indicative of the many incidents that happen and the risks that are caused. Ruth says:

“Our kids 4 and 8 are terrified as are our cats and dog.”

She said that they were

“considering going to stay with family outside of Glasgow for the first week of November as it’s…scary and distressing for everyone.”

Marg Vickers emailed to ask why, given all the climate change concerns that we have, we are

“senselessly adding fuel to the fire?”

She feels that it is

“all about money and commercialism with no thought about those that suffer every bonfire night; our veterans, our elderly and our animals.”

Elaine Wallace said that she had recently moved into Pollokshields and lives just off Albert Drive. She said that

“the last two weeks have been a shock”.

and she describes the fireworks in the street as “terrifying”. She has phoned the police on multiple occasions.

All of this is not for the want of trying to tackle the problem. I pay tribute to Police Scotland for all that it has done in Pollokshields after a very serious incident a few years ago when the police and fire service came under attack. Inspector Cenny Smith, Sergeant Lynn Donnelly, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Crimestoppers, trading standards, neighbourhood relations staff from the council, the Youth Community Support Agency and the Bowling Green in Pollokshields have all worked collaboratively to try to reduce the impact on communities. But I was out on the streets in Pollokshields on Friday night and the fireworks were going off everywhere, from all directions—near, far, up, through back courts, and in the middle of the road as well. That is incredibly unsafe. What is left behind is the impact on the community—the litter, the waste and the disruption to people’s lives.

It is unfortunate that the UK Government are not really doing anything to tackle the problem. The Scottish Government have had a comprehensive consultation. The responses were clear that legislation remains in the hands of the UK Government. If they will not do something about it, they must devolve the powers in order to let the Scottish Government get on with the job.

My constituent Lauren Aitchison said that she looked forward to

“the annual tradition of Alison Thewliss getting wearily to her feet in the House of Commons to explain, once again, why selling explosives in supermarkets isn’t a genius idea”.

The Minister should listen, and stop this right now.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Whitehead]

There is a strong case for looking seriously at what other legislatures have considered on fireworks and taking from them the sense that is embodied in their legislation. We should make evidence-based inquiries into what other legislatures, such as Northern Ireland, which the hon. Gentleman mentioned, and Australia have done and the effect of their legislation on the enjoyment of fireworks in those countries. As far as I know, that has not been done in the UK. It continues to be an area of silence, shall we say.

I am afraid that there are other areas of silence in terms of getting an evidence base together, as I have mentioned previously, particularly last year. The first is that we have heard, and continue to hear, about the effect of fireworks on domestic animals. We heard powerful testimony not just on domestic animals, but on the effect on children and people with mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder. We have not heard about––there is little research on it––what the random use of fireworks does to wildlife. We know virtually nothing about that, yet we continue to allow random instances of letting off very noisy fireworks in both urban and rural areas, which I imagine has a substantial and continuing effect on wildlife.

We also have little information about the climate effects of fireworks, in terms of their constituents and their residues. We know that they put a great deal of CO₂ into the atmosphere on fireworks night and that the atmosphere changes quite considerably the morning after. We must think of the effect of the chemicals in fireworks on the environment, on which several environmental organisations have commented.

Above all, we know from our direct experience––I can comment from my own constituency experience––just how inappropriate it is that we are subjected to the unconscionable noise of fireworks every year. As hon. Members have said, it is not just on 5 November, the lunar new year or Diwali but throughout the year. It is acts of extreme noise spaced regularly across the year.

On Friday—I cannot blame my constituents for this, because I was just over the border in the neighbouring constituency, so the 550 people from Southampton, Test who signed the petition were not responsible—there was a private display 100 yards away from my constituency. I do not know whether it was a legal or illegal firework, but an airborne firework made repeated noises six or seven times that echoed across the entire neighbourhood. It was the equivalent of a pretty loud military explosion taking place just down the road from where I live. I cannot believe that we find it acceptable these days for those kinds of fireworks to be readily sold and readily set off in private displays, and something has to happen about it fairly urgently.

In his response to a Westminster Hall debate on fireworks last year, the Minister claimed that some progress had been made in this area. He said:

“Fireworks clearly require some explosive content to be set off. However, as part of the evidence-based work, we have commissioned a test of fireworks to determine the range of decibel levels, and that will help to identify a lower acceptable decibel level. It will also look at the potential impact of such a classification. We will publish the report based on that work in due course.”—[Official Report, 2 November 2020; Vol. 683, c. 19WH.]

I am not aware that the report based on that work has been published. If it has been published, I am not aware that anybody has drawn any conclusions yet about what an acceptable decibel level might be and what the potential impact of such a classification might be. Will the Minister tell us where the report is? If it has been published, what conclusions is he drawing from it? If it has not been published, will he hurry up and ensure that it is published? When it is published, will he also publish what the Government think are acceptable decibel levels for fireworks? That is the nub of the issue.

[Alison Thewliss]

The hon. Gentleman is making a very good point about decibel levels. I am aware of somebody who bought some fireworks on the basis that they were being marketed as reduced-noise fireworks. When they were set off, the person was mortified to find out that they were actually louder than the ones that would have been bought originally. Perhaps there needs to be more regulation, even on that matter.

[Dr Whitehead]

We clearly need legislation from the top that, first, enforces who lets off fireworks and where and that, secondly, enforces how noisy and disruptive those fireworks might be. We certainly have what I would call firework washing going on at the moment, whereby some fireworks are claimed to be less noisy but are not. There is no objective measure or enforcement that we can take to ensure that the claimed levels of noise are accurate, and we still have the problem that enforcement is down to local authorities, the enforcement bodies of which have been starved of money for many years and are really hard pressed to take meaningful action on firework displays, particularly in private areas. We clearly need something from the top in order for us to get going on the road to safer, more acceptable and enjoyable firework displays across the country. That has to come from the Government, and it has to come shortly.

I do not want to be here yet again next year saying the same things, and I am sure that hon. Members do not want that either. We want to be here when the tests on decibel levels have been completed, when there is a conclusion about decibel levels, and when there is perhaps legislation on the statute books, or on the way to the statute books, that starts getting the guidance that can shape our firework displays properly for the future. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen) for her private Member’s Bill, which I hope will go a long way, if successful, towards getting some of these things under way. But as she said, however valiant the intentions with which private Member’s Bills are put forward, rather like fireworks they land with a thump on the ground after initially going off quite brightly.

We need Government assistance in this area now, and I hope that the Minister will be able to say today just what is in train and what will be coming forward, both in terms of evidence and action, over the next year.