HC Deb 07 March 1979 vol 963 cc708-10W
Mr. Lofthouse

asked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection if he will now publish the firework injury statistics for 1978; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. John Fraser

Statistics are now available relating to persons who received treatment in hospitals in England, Scotland and Wales for injuries caused by fireworks during the period 14 October to 11 November 1978 and I will, with permission, circulate them in theOfficial Report, together with the figures for comparable periods in the five preceding years.

They show that there was an overall increase of 30 per cent. in firework injuries treated by hospitals in 1978 compared with the previous year. The largest increase was attributable to incidents in the street (36 per cent.). The increases for family firework parties and for public or semi-public parties were 32 per cent. and 21 per cent. respectively.

FIREWORK INJURIES IN ENGLAND AND WALES (4-WEEK PERIOD IN OCTOBER-NOVEMBER)
1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973
Total 912 709 663 728 883 1,186
Place of accident
1. Family or private party 345 272 273 215 267 385
2. Public or semi-public party 164 138 161 144 137 153
3. Casual incident in street etc. 336 248 154 203 272 422
4. Other place 49 38 51 65 89 119
5. Unspecified place 13 24 101 118 107
6. Indoors (a) 18 — — — — —
Type of firework
1. Banger 210 174 153 196 228 356
2. Rocket 111 82 85 83 70 118
3. Roman candle, coloured fire etc. (b) 153 111 89 117 151 280
4. Home-made or extracted powder 39 18 17 24 29 38
5. Other proprietary fireworks 103 90 119 107 154 137
of which:
5.1 Jumping cracker (c) — — — 26 42 58
5.2 Other flyabout (d) — 14 14 25 52 W
5.3 Sparklers 70 65 W W W W
6. Unspecified type 226 234 200 201 251 257
Severity of injury
1. Fatal injury — 1 — — — —
2. Detained more than one night 62 65 47 43 70 80
3. Sufficient to cause absence from work or equivalent 117 88 112 93 121 178
4. Minor injury 694 523 473 572 654 892
5. Unspecified injury 39 32 31 20 38 36
Age group of injured persons
Over 21 161 141 126 114 131 195
16–20 68 38 47 50 58 74
13–16 216 185 143 152 184 248
Under 13 467 345 347 412 510 669
Eye injuries 350 268 300 313 372 448
Notes:
(a) Included in other place prior to 1978.
(b) Previously listed as "display fireworks".
(c) Jumping crackers were not sold from 1976.
(d) Included in other proprietary fireworks from 1978.
(e) Included in other proprietary fireworks prior to 1978.
W Not separately available.

I intend to consider in the light of the statistics what further action can be taken to reduce the incidence of accidents involving fireworks.