Fireworks (Hansard, 25 November 1975)

Mr. Alan Williams

I have now carefully considered all the views submitted in response to the consultative document on firework safety issued in April, and have had discussions with all the principal bodies concerned. In order to reduce86W further the number of injuries I have concluded that the existing controls should be strengthened by the following measures:

(1) the apparent age of persons to whom fireworks may be sold should be raised from 13 to 16 years;
(2) the maximum penalties for the offence of selling fireworks to children below the specified age and of throwing or discharging fireworks in the street should be increased from £20 to £200;
(3) the statutory maximum should be removed from the fee for registering premises where fireworks may be kept, and local authorities empowered to determine the charge in their own areas;
(4) flyabout or helicopter types of firework should be phased out of production and cease to be available;
(5) the production of bangers, which are most liable to be misused, should be progressively reduced by equal amounts over the next two years to one-half of this year's output; this will mean an overall reduction of over 20 million bangers;
(6) fireworks should be generally available in the shops for only three weeks before 5th November and a few days thereafter;
(7) within two years all fireworks other than bangers, sparklers and larger individual devices should be distributed in boxed selections only.

Legislation will be required to implement the first two of these proposals. This will be introduced when practicable.

An order under the Local Government Act 1974 will be laid seeking to give effect to the third proposal.

The remaining proposals will be achieved by voluntary agreement with the manufacturers and the retailers' and wholesalers' associations, who have all offered their full co-operation.

I intend to keep the matter under review in the light of results achieved by these measures.