§ Commander Keransasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will introduce legislation to curtail the sale of fireworks to young persons to a limited period before 5th November, in order to reduce accidents.
§ Mr. BrookeIt is already am offence to sell fireworks at any time to persons under the age of 13. I apprehend that if the age were raised the prohibition would be even more difficult to enforce than it is now. There are also practical reasons against a complete ban on the sale of fireworks outside a short period before 5th November. In any event I think that the adoption of this suggestion, even if it were feasible, would make little difference to the number of accidents from fireworks, because the majority of these occur on or about Guy Fawkes Day itself.