Budget Resolutions

Perran Moon Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Ind)]

It will come as no surprise to hear that I will talk largely about Cornwall. This Budget brings welcome hope to Cornwall; we also have a bespoke devolution deal on a Cornwall-only strategic authority footprint, which respects our unique identity, and we do not face the futility of having a mayor acting in parallel to our single unitary authority. That fresh hope comes with £2.7 million of good growth funding, a share of the £150 million uplift to capacity funding, and local control of the new overnight visitor levy.

Cornwall welcomes millions of visitors, but our communities carry that pressure without receiving the investment needed to manage it. If properly designed, the levy could be a revenue stream that funds the infrastructure needed to unlock Cornish reindustrialisation and build fresh hope across our communities. The Government must recognise that if we have a single-foundation strategic authority, it is a pointless waste of taxpayers’ money to install an elected mayor in parallel, as an ideological quid pro quo for accessing extra funding and powers.

[Sir John Hayes]

Cornwall is similar to Lincolnshire in some of the challenges that it faces, particularly regarding the delivery of public services in a scattered rural area. Will the hon. Gentleman join calls for more action on heating oil? Many of his constituents will be dependent on heating oil, as people are in my constituency, but there is precious little about that in the Budget. I hope that we can create cross-party consensus that more must be done.

[Perran Moon]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his intervention, but I remind him that there was a support package in the Budget, which I will talk about a little later.

I welcome the Government’s focus on fiscal prudence and economic competence, and their determination to crowd in private investment in order to rebuild our economy. Since 2024 the Government have doubled the fire power of our financial institutions to more than £200 billion. Cornwall has seen the value of anchor investment in our tin, lithium and tungsten industries. Additional capital for the national wealth fund sends a signal of confidence in Cornwall’s critical minerals and their contribution to Britain’s economic security and energy resilience.

Cornwall has vast untapped economic potential through our internationally renowned resources of critical minerals. The Conservatives ignored those resources and abandoned Cornwall, but this Government are taking welcome action to bring back Cornish tin mining and bring back fresh hope to our communities. However, the Government must go further and faster to ensure that these vast resources are not offshored by competitive nations, to the detriment of UK plc.

There is also a risk that Cornwall will be disadvantaged precisely because we have chosen a model of devolution that reflects our national minority status. A key offer for foundational strategic authorities has been business rates retention, but Cornwall council has had that since 2017. Mayoral strategic authorities can also access a £1.5 billion borrowing facility and negotiate strategic place partnerships with Homes England, but Cornwall cannot currently do that either. With 25,000 homes on the social housing register, getting the deal and its associated funding would be transformative for Cornish house building and we will not stop demanding that.

In Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, house prices have risen almost 18% in five years, compared with 6.4% across England and Wales. Young people increasingly feel that owning a home where they grew up is beyond their reach, so the first-time buyer ISA and the £4.7 billion Your First Home scheme offer fresh hope. Alongside the 100% council tax premium on empty homes, they could make home ownership possible again for a new generation of Cornish families.

On energy, this Budget fully demonstrates how this Government are on the side of remote communities such as ours in Cornwall. One in seven households in Camborne, Redruth and Hayle rely on heating oil, compared with one in 29 nationally. With heating oil prices up 82% since the start of the Iran war, the two-year suspension of tariffs on kerosene is welcome, but I hope that is a first step and not a final destination. The same is true for the £100 household energy payment for over 43,000 households in my constituency, the additional £100 million for targeted energy support, the commitment to abolish domestic gas standing charges and the extension of zero VAT on electricity to July.

However, in my capacity as chair of the APPG on electric vehicles, I have some concerns about the signals we are sending to the automotive sector. The continued uncertainty over the zero emission vehicle mandate risks weakening investment in Britain’s position in export markets. Charging 20% VAT on public charge points penalises drivers without a driveway or a home charger. Although an eventual road tax for EVs is understandable, introducing it in 2028 through an unwieldy scheme risks discouraging adoption when demand needs to accelerate.

All things considered, this Budget is welcome for Cornwall. Each of the wins, from heating oil to energy bills, and from housing to devolution, comes alongside a vast improvement in the fundamentals of the British economy since the last election, despite strong global headwinds. The Government are restoring credibility and competence to the British economy, we are creating breathing space for our constituents, and we are rebuilding our reputation with our closest neighbours, our allies and our friends in the European Union. It is in the British national interest to do so. Rather than the withering disdain and distrust of the Conservative Government, this Government are engaging proactively, and I thoroughly welcome that.

Royal Mail: Performance

Perran Moon Excerpts

Wednesday 21st October 2026 Westminster Hall

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Ind)]

Meur ras, Ms Lewell. It is an honour to serve under your chairship. I thank the hon. Member for Lagan Valley (Sorcha Eastwood) for securing this debate and for her excellent speech.

The performance of Royal Mail in Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, in the south-west of Cornwall, has been simply woeful. Constituents regularly tell me that they have gone weeks without post and, like other hon. Members’ constituents, have received a large backlog all at once.

Sharon from Hayle had waited a year for an operation when she received a call from the hospital asking whether she intended to attend. The appointment letter, together with the swabs required pre surgery, had never arrived. Thankfully, the arrangements were later confirmed by phone and email, but the letter itself was delivered three days after the operation had taken place. Another constituent was sent a letter for a hospital appointment 19 days after it was scheduled. Such delays risk causing vulnerable people to miss essential treatment, and place a burden on our overstretched NHS.

In Cornwall, our remote coastal geography and patchy digital connectivity—to say the least—mean that many of us still rely heavily on the universal postal service, but I worry that the situation will only get worse. In recent weeks, several Royal Mail workers have contacted me with concerns about the new delivery model 26. They report unmanageable workloads, experienced workers leaving, morale at rock bottom and substantial volumes of mail sitting undelivered. Three workers completing four rounds does not sound a credible way to improve reliability and restore public trust in Royal Mail. I echo the points made: the issue is not one of posties; it is one of management. Nor should Royal Mail continue to respond, if at all, to our constituents with template responses or hide behind impossible-to-navigate AI chatbots, while the reality on the ground slips further behind.

I therefore ask the Minister what discussions the Government have had with Royal Mail about DM26, and what action will be taken to ensure my constituents receive a postal service worthy of the word “royal”. If Royal Mail is going to treat this House and elected Members with such arrogance, the Government must take direct, firm and urgent action.

[Emma Lewell (in the Chair)]

The time limit is now three minutes.

Kinship Carers: Statutory Paid Employment Leave

Perran Moon Excerpts

Tuesday 20th October 2026 Westminster Hall

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

rose—

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

rose—

[Melanie Onn]

We are very popular! I will give way first to my hon. Friend and then to the Lady.

[Perran Moon]

I thank my hon. Friend for bringing us this debate. Does she agree that, with over a thousand children in kinship care in Cornwall, kinship carers play a vital role in keeping vulnerable children in loving family networks, and that when 45% of kinship carers lose their job after taking on the care of a child, we must do more to ensure that those carers receive the support that they need?

[Melanie Onn]

Yes, my hon. Friend is right. The concern for kinship carers is that they either have to give up work voluntarily or fall foul of their employer’s terms and conditions merely by taking on the moral duty of caring for a child. Introducing statutory paid employment leave for kinship carers would send a signal in society that we recognise the importance of family arrangements and that those family arrangements extend not just to birth parents, adoptive parents or foster parents, but to kinship families as well.

Oral Answers to Questions

Perran Moon Excerpts

Thursday 15th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Kate Dearden]

I thank my hon. Friend for bringing this matter to my attention, and I would be more than happy to meet her to discuss it further.

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

Plans to revive Cornish tin and tungsten mining are well advanced with the support of the National Wealth Fund. However, if tin or tungsten were to be brought to the surface today, it would have to be shipped to the other side of the world for refining and processing, with only a fraction coming back to the UK at seriously increased cost. When Cornish MPs meet the Minister next week, can we discuss plans from Government to invest in domestic refinement of tin and tungsten?

[Blair McDougall]

We will absolutely discuss that. As my hon. Friend knows—because he talks to me about this issue at every available opportunity—we are determined to make sure that more of the value of that entire process remains in the UK, which is why we are putting £50 million on the table for exactly that sort of development work.

Speciality Steel UK

Perran Moon Excerpts

Monday 14th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Reynolds]

Yes. On both a per capita basis and on a straightforward cash basis, Wales had until fairly recently had the lion’s share—the biggest allocations —from Government because of the significance of the transformation programme at Port Talbot, which remains a fundamental part of the steel sector across the UK. Being frank, it is also one of the sector’s success stories: the transformation of Port Talbot is a major project supported by significant public money and significant private capital, and it is exactly the kind of transformation we are seeking in other parts of the UK. It is to the credit of the workforce at Port Talbot that they are at the forefront of this; notwithstanding the difficult issues involved in such a transformation, it is something to be proud of.

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

I very much welcome the Secretary of State’s statement. Does he agree that workers and communities are ultimately paying the price for the reckless conduct associated with Lex Greensill and those who championed his business model, and that this Government are now stepping in with the leadership that was previously so lacking?

[Jonathan Reynolds]

My hon. Friend tempts me to comment on certain issues, which I might swerve a little. He is right to say that the priority for politicians should be trying to resolve these issues and get steelworkers back to work, and anything that detracts from that or that goes in a different direction is deeply regrettable.

Global Tin Availability

Perran Moon Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd September 2026 Westminster Hall

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the impact of levels of global tin availability on the economy.

Meur ras, Mrs Barker. It is an honour to serve under your chairship once again for such an important debate, not just for the UK’s domestic energy security but for global climate change. We were expecting more numbers when colleagues thought this was a Tinder debate, but when I explained that it was a tin debate, the numbers dropped off slightly.

The ill-informed may associate tin with cans, but in fact our cans are made almost exclusively of aluminium and contain no tin. More learned colleagues will know that tin, which is used in virtually every electrical device, is increasingly indispensable in the technologies that underpin modern industries. The digital economy, the green economy and the artificial intelligence economy—tin is foundational to each. However, as with other critical minerals, the overconcentration of processing and supply among a small number of countries a long way from western Europe presents massive economic and geopolitical risks. While debates about critical minerals are often focused on lithium, tungsten, nickel and rare earths, tin is often inexplicably overlooked.

I have to declare an interest, not only as an officer of the all-party parliamentary group on critical minerals but as the MP for the constituency of the last tin mine in the country to close in 1998. However, it is not only in Camborne and Redruth that the stirrings of excitement are almost palpable. Every single Cornishman and Cornishwoman across the globe will celebrate the return of an industry that goes way beyond just a job. Cornish tin may invoke something far more visceral and emotional, but before becoming a little starry-eyed about the return of Cornish tin mining, I feel it is incumbent on me to highlight tin’s new practical applications, the strategic case for it and the opportunity that we have in this country to rise to the challenges of global supply constrictions.

About half of all tin is used as solder for electronics. It is simply unrivalled in connecting components on circuit boards, enabling electrical conductivity while preventing oxidation. As a result, it is integral to almost every piece of modern technology—every smartphone, laptop, data centre server, semiconductor, telecommunications network and advanced manufacturing system. They all totally rely on tin. Without tin, there are no circuit boards, and without circuit boards, there is no new industrial strategy.

The 21st-century growth sectors—those at the global technological cutting edge—are increasingly driving demand for tin skywards. Electric vehicles require up to three times the tin of a combustion engine vehicle. Tin demand for solar panels has trebled over the last five years. Tin is required in 5G infrastructure, emerging battery technologies and renewable energy.

Interestingly, tin is increasingly important in the development of AI. AI is often discussed in terms of software and algorithms, and less so the vast physical infrastructure that sits behind it, but from the racks to the power modules and networking switches, tin is essential to the physical architecture. In the fabrication of advanced AI chips, molten tin droplets are struck thousands of times per second by high-powered lasers as part of the extreme ultraviolet lithography process used to manufacture cutting-edge semiconductors.

As Governments and companies invest billions in data centres and computational capacity, demand for tin in the UK is soaring. In the growth-driving IS-8 sectors alone, demand is expected to grow at an average of 19%, year on year, until 2035. Between now and then, a cumulative total of more than 27,000 tonnes of tin will be required.

Here is the crux of the debate. Although demand is rapidly expanding, huge questions remain about the security and resilience of global supply. Extraction and processing are currently heavily concentrated in six countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Bolivia and Peru. Those countries currently supply over 90% of primary production, while China alone refines more than half of global tin.

With that comes blindingly obvious risk. We have seen in the strait of Hormuz what happens when a state weaponises its control of a choke point in global supply. The ramifications spread rapidly through entire economies. With tin, the UK is even more exposed to such global shocks because we currently produce none. We have already seen what happens to pricing with localised disruptions over the past few years: Myanmar’s 2023 Wa state mining ban; export licensing issues in Indonesia; and military conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Because the tin market is relatively small in volume compared with other metals, it is the least traded by volume on the London metal exchange. Those modest disruptions have fuelled massive price increases. In 2025, the tin price surged 40% and has rallied a further 34% this year to date, rising to nearly £40,000 a tonne. Come 2035, there will be an expected shortfall of 85,000 tonnes per year in global supply. I will say that again: come 2035, there is expected to be a shortfall of 85,000 tonnes per year in global supply.

The challenge with tin is also one of geology and ethics. Many producing regions are experiencing declining ore grades, often between 0.3% and 0.8%—I will come to it later, but the grade at South Crofty is well over 1%—and that means greater volumes of material must be processed to achieve the same output, which inevitably increases costs. At the same time, there are legitimate concerns about environmental impacts, labour standards and illegal mining activity throughout the global supply chain.

I ask the Government to recognise the following. First, tin is fundamental to our advanced economy. Secondly, demand for tin will continue to far outstrip the inherently risky global supply chain. Thirdly, therefore, tin production and processing should be considered of strategic national importance, and an investment case for a tin smelter, based on UK economic security, should be developed as a priority.

When it comes to UK critical minerals, we are falling well behind competitor states such as the United States, Canada, France and Australia. The US has announced more than $40 billion in funding for critical minerals projects since 2022, alongside major equity stakes in domestic mines. Our friends and neighbours in the member states of the European Union have committed more than €6 billion to critical mineral projects in this year alone. The UK has committed a tiny fraction of that sum.

In that context, I turn back west to Cornwall. For four millennia, Cornwall has supplied tin to Britain and the world. Tin mining is woven into our history, identity and DNA, nowhere more so than in my constituency of Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, where the old engine houses still grace our landscape.

Tin is once again one of Cornwall’s greatest opportunities. Anchored by £28 million of National Wealth Fund investment, Cornish Metals is on course to reopen the South Crofty mine that shut 30 years ago. Hopefully, that will be achieved in 2028. South Crofty has the highest grade of unmined tin in the world. It is expected to produce up to 4,700 tonnes annually, equivalent to up to 1.6% of globally mined tin production, which could meet the demand from Britain’s growing IS-8 sectors. That is one mine; there are hundreds of mines across Cornwall with critical minerals. The range of those critical minerals is yet to be defined, but there is an awful lot of exploration going on at the moment. Nationally, this offers an opportunity to strengthen domestic supply resilience, reduce dependence on overseas extraction and support the development of strategic industries.

For Cornwall, South Crofty could be transformative. My constituency of Camborne, Redruth and Hayle contains some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country. Weekly median wages are £95 less than average, and the number of young people claiming unemployment benefits has risen by 26% this year alone. The opening of South Crofty will directly support hundreds of skilled jobs and thousands more in the wider supply chain. Multiplying that by the number of mines shows the importance of critical minerals to the Cornish economy.

If we are serious about good growth being felt in every postcode, we must champion this kind of investment. I have previously raised concerns in the House about the UK’s domestic processing and refining capacity. At present, tin mined in Britain would need to travel to east Asia for processing before returning in a form that British manufacturers can use. That is economically, geostrategically and environmentally dire. What steps will the Government take to strengthen domestic critical minerals supply chains? What progress has been made in implementing the critical minerals strategy? What consideration has been given to supporting domestic processing and refining capacity? Can energy support schemes such as the British industrial competitiveness scheme play a greater role in ensuring that our critical minerals projects remain internationally competitive? I look forward to the Minister’s response.

--- Later in debate ---

[Perran Moon]

I thank everybody who has contributed to this debate. Perhaps next time I should actually advertise it as a Tinder debate, and we can educate people while they are here.

I will thank a few people specifically. My hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay (Noah Law) is very knowledgeable, particularly in the areas of midstream and downstream work; he talked about processing supply chains. Both he and my hon. Friend the Member for South East Cornwall (Anna Gelderd) mentioned the Kernow industrial growth fund. Right now, that fund is being used for exactly what it was designed to do—to support some exploratory mining opportunities, among other commercial opportunities in Cornwall. He also mentioned unblocking planning and permitting issues, which we need to take on board.

My hon. Friend the Member for South East Cornwall is a superb champion for Cornwall Resources, which is doing amazing things to maximise the opportunity in tungsten. She talked insightfully about the local benefits, including in relation to the skills agenda. We really need to tie that agenda in with our devolution deal, which I know the Prime Minister has mentioned several times in the last 48 hours. For us in Cornwall, the skills agenda will be critical—excuse the pun—to maximise the opportunities in this particular sector.

I totally agree with the Liberal Democrat spokesman, the hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mr Reynolds), about the exploration that is urgently needed on these critical minerals. I heard what the Minister said, but we are not just talking about tin, tungsten and lithium, the three we know about at the moment; we know from previous records that we also have nickel, cobalt, uranium, silver and many others, but we need the data that exploration can provide and we need support in that regard.

The Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Grantham and Bourne (Gareth Davies), clearly grasps the importance of Cornish tin mining. He also mentioned energy costs; perhaps that is a debate for another day but, because of our Cornubian batholith, which is the granite formation on which Cornwall sits, we have vast geothermal opportunities. We are looking at whether there is a commercial case to make use locally of that geothermal energy to drive some of our industrial regeneration.

I have already mentioned the importance of aligning this issue to the devolution deal. Really, this debate was more of a clarion call to Government to focus very closely, not only on lithium and tungsten, but on a huge opportunity within the tin sector across the whole of Cornwall.

Finally, I warmly extend an invitation to the Minister to visit the South Crofty tin mine.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered the impact of levels of global tin availability on the economy.

Ceramics Industry

Perran Moon Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2026 Westminster Hall

[Dave Robertson (Lichfield) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered e-petition 764785 relating to support for the ceramics industry.

It is a pleasure, as ever, to see you in the Chair, Dr Murrison. Before I get going, I declare that I am a member of the general, municipal and boilermakers union, the GMB.

It is a particular pleasure to introduce this debate as a ceramics MP, and I add my full-throated support to the petition and its aims. My constituency of Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages is home to Armitage Shanks, a company that for more than 200 years has been manufacturing bathroomware in the village of Armitage, from which it takes its name. The identity of the village is inextricably tied up with the company, but, sadly, my constituents will fully recognise the petition’s characterisation of a struggling ceramics sector, because like so many of our British ceramics businesses, Armitage Shanks has been suffering, despite the best efforts and hard work of its brilliant staff.

Earlier this year, the firm—now owned by Villeroy & Boch, a German manufacturer—was forced to close one of the kilns at its site in a bid to keep the business internationally competitive. That closure has had a real impact on the community, with 100 jobs lost as a result, and it is a reminder that when our heritage ceramics brands are struggling, it is about not just our country’s manufacturing history and the heritage of the areas that support those businesses, but present-day jobs, skills and livelihoods. I have visited the Armitage site multiple times in recent months, and the concerns that I have heard over and over again from workers there and from their union, the GMB, fully echo the petition.

The job losses at Armitage Shanks are, sadly, just one example of the pressures that the sector faces. In 2025, we lost two ceramics firms in Stoke-on-Trent, Royal Stafford and Heraldic Pottery, a blow that went right to the heart of that city’s identity. Last month, the final pieces of pottery rolled off the production lines at Denby in Derbyshire, which was a sad moment for many people, especially my hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley (Linsey Farnsworth). In March, the iconic British brand, known around the world for quality manufacture and design, entered administration. Its collapse has also led to more than 100 skilled workers losing their jobs.

Thanks to one of those workers, Hayley, we are here to debate this motion. I am very glad to see her in the Public Gallery today. I congratulate her on her first week in a new position that she found elsewhere, but I am sure she would have liked to go to it in rather better circumstances. I am sure that I speak for all right hon. and hon. Members in the Chamber when I say that British ceramics is richer for retaining her experience and passion in the industry.

Hayley’s petition could not be more timely. We met ahead of the debate to discuss her concerns, which echo the worries that I hear from the constituents, businesses and unions in my area, and which I and other ceramics MPs gathered here today have been pressing the Government on. I am not surprised to see so many hon. Members joining us, because almost 110,000 people signed Hayley’s petition—more than 10% of them coming from just seven constituencies.

This issue is very much centred on Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and the people in our areas care deeply about it. Hayley’s petition recognises that much of the ceramics sector in our country is in crisis. As she warns, “soaring industrial energy costs” have left businesses

“at the risk of imminent collapse without urgent intervention”.

Ceramics manufacturing relies on high levels of electricity and gas, and when their prices rise here in the UK, our businesses are put at a competitive disadvantage on the international stage.

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way in this debate, which is clearly important not only to his particular area, but to UK manufacturing more widely. On the challenges of energy costs, the ceramics industry has suffered similar challenges to the critical minerals sector, specifically the tin mining and processing sector in my Camborne, Redruth and Hayle constituency. Does he agree that the Government must go further and faster to replicate some of the support that has been afforded to the ceramics industry for critical minerals?

[Dave Robertson]

My good and hon. Friend is right to raise the importance of energy costs to industry across the United Kingdom. Ceramics, though, is the hardest industry to decarbonise. It is therefore right that the Government are looking at a specific carve-out for ceramics, especially given its geography.

Returning to the problem so ably diagnosed by Hayley, she has also offered a solution. The petition calls on the Government to urgently review the British industry supercharger—a scheme that helps energy-intensive businesses including steel, chemicals and paper manufacturers with their electricity costs. She calls for that to be extended to the ceramics sector. During the last few months, Denby has said that relief through the supercharger scheme would have saved the company, but currently, ceramics businesses are falling through the cracks of the scheme.

Oral Answers to Questions

Perran Moon Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call Perran Moon.

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

Meur ras ha myttin da, Mr Speaker. Over 95% of Cornish businesses are small or microbusinesses. We are a hotbed of innovation and agility, but these Cornish businesses have been supported over the last 10 years with European Union objective 1 funding and shared prosperity funding, both of which have ended, and there is zero chance of Cornwall joining an English mayoral combined authority, so can the Minister outline how we can protect our innovative and agile micro and small businesses?

Oral Answers to Questions

Perran Moon Excerpts

Thursday 12th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Chris Bryant]

Yes.

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

The UK economy needs more and more critical minerals, and in Cornwall we have loads of them. Private capital has flown into the duchy on the back of the Labour Government’s investments of about £100 million through the national wealth fund and the Kernow industrial growth fund, but will the Minister update the House on Government plans to unlock more private investment in our critical minerals sector to unleash the Cornish Celtic tiger?

Sale of Fireworks

Perran Moon Excerpts

Monday 19th January 2026 Westminster Hall

[Robbie Moore]

Following on from the hon. Member’s intervention, there is an opportunity in the animal welfare strategy announced by the Government over the Christmas period. I feel that it does not go far enough in detailing what could be put in place specifically to deal with fireworks in the context of animal welfare over the rest of this Parliament.

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

Sitting on the Opposition side of the Chamber, I find it difficult to listen to the hon. Member saying what could and should be done now, given that for 14 years a lot of this stuff could have been done but was not. However, my point is this: he has talked about domestic animals, farm animals, veterans and the elderly, but one group that has not been mentioned also needs to be considered—wild animals. Does he agree that we must also consider the perhaps unseen impact of these very loud fireworks on wildlife?

[Robbie Moore]

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point, because a lot of this issue is about data collection. It is very easy to collect data and to demonstrate the impact of fireworks on pets and farm animals; it is much more difficult—almost impossible—to demonstrate the impact on wild animals. Even the data about pets and other kept animals is few and far between so it is less easy to demonstrate to the Government that action needs to be taken. Nevertheless, I urge the Minister to consider the impact on all animals of fireworks being let off.

The current legal limit for loudness of fireworks is 120 dB, which is equivalent to being at a rock concert or standing next to a police siren. By contrast, 90 dB, although still not quiet, is equivalent to a busy restaurant or a hairdryer. It is completely reasonable to suggest reducing noise levels to something more considerate—indeed, 85 dB is the threshold at which humans experience hearing damage. Reducing noise would mean that private fireworks displays could continue, but with be a reduced risk of distressing animals or inconveniencing neighbours.