Fireworks: Sale and Use

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Monday 8th November 2021 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a pleasure to speak in the debate, and I thank the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn) for introducing this online petition, which was very well subscribed to.

My wife was a volunteer with Assisi Animal Sanctuary for around 10 years, and on many occasions she highlighted the problems with animals and fireworks displays, so the statistics from Blue Cross come as no surprise to me personally. Some 70% of the nation’s pets are affected by fireworks, with dogs topping the list at 64%, followed by cats at 42%, and horses at 17%. Owners reported their pets trembling with fear and being physically sick, with 45% saying the unexpected bangs and noises left their pet hiding away for hours and 21% saying their pets had been left scared to go outdoors for days. In drastic cases, some owners were even forced to move house, and 7% said they had to rehome their animals. The Dogs Trust has highlighted some of the behaviours it sees:

“We can also see very overt behaviours including barking, spinning, self-trauma such as tail-chewing/tail-licking and destruction… These behaviours can be extremely challenging for owners to address because fireworks remain out of their control and, therefore, they are unable to remove the triggers for their dog’s fearful behaviour.”

I am not saying that we should not have fireworks—as the hon. Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen) said, we are not killjoys; we are just about protection and having the right measures in place. We must, however, regulate fireworks more effectively to minimise the problems for pet owners. We should shorten the timeframe for the availability of fireworks and tighten up the legislation on who may purchase or use them and on when they are used. If pet owners know for certain the days when fireworks may be used legally, they may take mitigating measures to protect their animals. It is a matter of us all working together—let us do it the right way.

Blue Cross and other charities have said that they want to see further restrictions on the sale of fireworks, limiting them to licensed public occasions and organised events. I agree with that methodology, ever mindful that people have a right to enjoy fireworks. We want to ensure that they may do so, but that they do it in a way that does not disadvantage or impact on those with animals.

Blue Cross also recommends that the period within which fireworks may be purchased and used should be as limited as possible. Local authorities should take the location of public displays into consideration when granting a licence and ensure that they are well publicised in the surrounding area. We should all work together. The hon. Member for Keighley (Robbie Moore) referred to attacks on the fire brigade, and each and every one of us in Northern Ireland—particularly in Strangford, which I represent—knows about issues with that.

We all enjoy the displays, but what happens if people get their pet out, only for fireworks to start again the next night? It can go on for weeks. That is unacceptable and cannot happen. It really is not fair. We must do better to allow the freedom to enjoy fireworks safely without traumatising animals, but we do not yet have that balance. We can get it, and I look to the Minister for a satisfactory response.

--- Later in debate ---

[Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) (SNP)]

Thank you, Mr Twigg. I thank the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn) for his comprehensive exposition of the debate.

Every year we have the same debate, and every year a Minister stands up and says not very much at all that takes into account the reality of the disruption and distress that fireworks cause in our communities. To be clear, no one in the Chamber today or in any of the six previous debates—we did not have one in 2019 because of the election—has ever called for fireworks to be banned, although that is often how the kind of concerns that have been expressed today are dismissed. For example, I recently raised this very issue in business questions. When I asked about the regulation of fireworks, the Leader of the House responded by calling me “a killjoy”, then began to recite the words of a traditional bonfire-night rhyme.

We all know that the right hon. Member for North East Somerset (Mr Rees-Mogg) believes that he has his finger on the pulse, but that response will sound contemptuous to my constituents in North Ayrshire and Arran—but that is only because it is contemptuous of the disruption and distress to which they are subjected because of the misuse of fireworks. From the right hon. Gentleman’s response, I can only assume that the good people of North Somerset are not plagued by fireworks, as my constituents are—they seem to have quite a different experience. I wish to repeat and make it absolutely clear that no one is calling for fireworks to be banned. The current situation—anyone over the age of 18 can purchase fireworks, with all the potential for community disruption that entails—is simply not tenable, and it is not acceptable. The distress, as we have heard, caused to the elderly, beloved family pets, veterans with PTSD, and to children and babies, shaken from their sleep, makes the compelling case that the sale of fireworks should be restricted to organised community displays, and that only those with a licence to deliver such displays should be able to access them.

Fireworks, whether for bonfire night, a wedding, or some other important celebration, are a hugely enjoyable spectacle. Indeed, some 10 million of us in the UK enjoy them throughout the year. Nobody has any quarrel with that; the point at issue is the fact that the irresponsible misuse of fireworks must be tackled properly, and that is most sensibly and most effectively done at the point of sale.

As Members have said in this debate, and have said in every previous annual debate on this subject, we know all about the accidents and injuries caused by fireworks, which are sobering indeed. We also know about the increased pressures this places on public services. The fact is that selling fireworks to the general public entirely on the basis that they are aged 18 or over is very hard to justify and yet, year after year, a Government Minister is trotted out, trying to do just that, very unconvincingly.

[Jim Shannon]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Patricia Gibson]

In a moment. This is my sixth debate on this issue, and I remember when the illusion of action was played out in previous debates, with talk of consultations and evidence gathering. Today, it seems to be a proposal for a review group. All of this is excuse after excuse for inaction—and, of course, all of those previous initiatives came to nothing. It seems that all they were designed to do—if Members will pardon the pun—was take the heat out of the issue.

For reasons that very few of us can understand, the Government are simply not willing to regulate the sale of fireworks, and nobody can honestly understand why. We do not need review groups; we do not need consultations; what we need is the Minister to get on his feet and announce concrete action. I have no optimism that he will do so, based on the previous six debates. To advise constituents to call the police when fireworks plague their community is disingenuous. By the time the police are able to attend, the damage has been done and those who are responsible are long gone. In their wake, fireworks have caused huge disruption to communities, scared family pets out of their wits, and sometimes literally scared them to death.

In Scotland, the Scottish Parliament has the authority to regulate when fireworks can be set off, but no power at all over the regulation of the sale of fireworks, which in effect means it has no power at all. If we cannot influence who has access to fireworks, we cannot deal with the disruption that they cause.

Fireworks cannot currently be sold to anyone under 18, but as I have said in the past six debates, so what? We know that children can get hold of them, and that people using fireworks irresponsibly are often perfectly entitled, under the law, to buy them. The irresponsible use of fireworks is not confined to those who got hold of them illegally, which is why more needs to be done to protect the elderly, people with pets, and a whole range of people in our communities.

As we have heard, every single Member of Parliament present for this debate, and many who are not, have had constituents telling them about the onslaught of fireworks and the profound effects they have had on their quality of life and on their pets, who undergo trembling fits and become withdrawn and very frightened. Of course, this cannot be prepared for, because the outbursts of fireworks come from nowhere when someone has fireworks and thinks they will have a wee bit of fun. Some people think it is a great idea to set fireworks off in tenement closes, or in shared entryways to flats in the middle of the night.

What is interesting about this debate is that the sale of fireworks is tightly restricted in the Republic of Ireland, while in Northern Ireland, fireworks have long been subjected to some of the strictest laws in the world. Perhaps the Minister—I keep asking this; I have asked it six times in the six previous debates—can tell us why the rest of the United Kingdom is denied similar or greater protection than Northern Ireland. Even the United States, which has liberal gun laws, believes that restrictions on fireworks need to be strict.

The current situation in Scotland is nothing short of bizarre. The use of fireworks is a devolved matter, but the sale of fireworks is reserved. It does not take a genius to work out that unless the sale of fireworks—who can get their hands on them—can be tackled there will be no meaningful influence over who uses them, which makes it extremely difficult to police. Our local environmental, health and anti-social behaviour teams work hard to tackle the misuse of fireworks in our communities, but that is dealing with the consequences of their wide availability rather than tackling the fear, alarm, distress, and safety hazard that they cause, which we have heard so much about. As the Minister knows, the only way to deal with this issue is to tackle the sale to individuals—to tackle the problem at source, and be mindful of the fact that fireworks are far more powerful and prevalent today than in the past.

Organised and licensed displays allow the many people who wish to enjoy fireworks to do so safely. Importantly, they allow local residents to plan ahead and make arrangements to protect their pets and get on with their lives. The Dogs Trust says that when public displays are organised 93% of pet owners alter their plans during the display time to minimise their pet’s trauma, which protects its welfare. We cannot help pet owners to prepare for the use of fireworks in their neighbourhood when fireworks are going off randomly without warning. The solution, as we have heard across the Chamber, is patently obvious to anyone who chooses to look. We need greater restrictions on the sale of fireworks, instead of selling them to all and sundry over 18 years old.

Organised public firework displays are a safer option for all our communities, and would become the accepted and welcome norm. We need to get the balance right. No one is asking for fireworks to be banned altogether, but the status quo must not continue. Is the Minister finally going to announce action on this issue, or are we to rehearse these arguments every year to a Government who appear unwilling to listen and, like the Leader of the House, dismiss us and our constituents as killjoys? If the Government do not want to act on this issue, give us the power in Scotland and we will get on with it ourselves.

[Dr Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) (Lab)]

The debate has been characterised by passion and unanimity. Across the House, hon. Members have joined together to say two things. No. 1 is that none of us is in the business of saying that fireworks should be banned completely. The way in which the debate has been characterised in some areas is a severe misrepresentation of what people are saying across the piece. The second issue on which there is pretty much unanimity in the Chamber is that the status quo cannot prevail in the end. It really is not acceptable to carry on in this way regarding firework displays.

I think today’s debate is the sixth on this subject. I cannot claim that I have been present for all of them, but the cast assembled for last year’s debate was pretty identical to today’s. Certainly I, as the Opposition spokesperson, and the Minister were in identical places. I hope we were not saying identical things, but I fear that we are looking at yet another identical response this evening to what hon. Members are saying. What I said last year pretty much coincides with what hon. Members have been saying across the Chamber. As the petition says, there is a strong case for looking at restricting firework sales to organised displays where we can be confident about the quality and safety of the display, and the extent to which proper arrangements, such as notice in advance, will be made that will allow fireworks to be enjoyed, as they should be, in both safety and reasonable peace.

[Jim Shannon]

The hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Patricia Gibson) referred to legislation in Northern Ireland. I just want to say that there is a reason for that: the terrorist campaign. The legislation in Northern Ireland works. It does not stop people getting fireworks, but they have to buy them under licence and it is controlled. Does the hon. Gentleman feel that that should be the example for the whole of the UK, England in particular?

[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.

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[Paul Scully]

I understand my hon. Friend’s point. I would differentiate between a constant noise of 120 dB in a confined area and the more individual use of fireworks in an outdoor area, but none the less I take his point.

The Government are also committed to giving the police what they need to support local communities, including through the recruitment of an additional 20,000 police officers by March 2023 and investment in measures to make communities safer through the safer streets fund. That being said, I understand the challenges faced by enforcement authorities, and I assure Members that the Government are not complacent in this area.

[Jim Shannon]

Has the Minister had the opportunity to discuss the Northern Ireland legislation with the devolved Administration and the responsible Minister at the Assembly? I understand that there are exceptional circumstances, but that legislation seems at least to have led to some control over this issue.

[Paul Scully]

I have not had a discussion at ministerial level, but officials look at what is happening in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland—and in other countries. Clearly, there is a difference in the law in Northern Ireland, predominantly because of troubles and the historical context there; however, officials from the Office for Product Safety and Standards do look at that.