§ Mr. Lofthouseasked 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, pursuant to the reply [Official Report, 7 March 1979; Vol. 963, c. 709–10] gave the following further information: 791W
FIREWORK INJURIES IN GREAT BRITAIN Four-week period in October-November YEAR 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 TOTAL 953 733 685 766 927 1,249 PLACE OF ACCIDENT 1 Family or private party 359 275 277 218 272 398 2 Public or semi-public party 175 144 167 148 144 160 3 Casual incident in street, etc. 350 258 160 220 290 448 4 Other place 51 39 56 69 94 128 5 Unspecified place 17 25 111 127 115 6 Indoors* 18 — — — — — TYPE OF FIREWORK 1 Banger 212 178 159 208 237 379 2 Rocket 122 87 91 89 79 129 3 Roman candle, coloured fire, etc. † 160 112 89 119 159 294 4 Home-made or extracted powder 39 19 17 27 31 40 5 Other proprietary fireworks of which: 107 92 119 110 159 139 5.1 Jumping cracker‡ — — — 26 43 59 5.2 Other flyabout§ — 15 14 27 54 .. 6 Sparklers|| 71 65 72 .. .. .. 7 Unspecified type 242 245 210 213 262 268 SEVERITY OF INJURY 1 Fatal injury — 1 — — — — 2 Detained more than one night 65 71 50 46 78 84 3 Sufficient to cause absence from work or equivalent 119 89 118 96 127 188 4 Minor injury 730 539 486 602 683 938 5 Unspecified injury 39 33 31 22 39 39 AGE GROUP OF INJURED PERSONS Over 21 170 145 129 120 134 202 16–20 70 40 47 53 59 78 13–16 226 190 147 161 194 265 Under 13 487 358 362 432 540 704 EYE INJURIES 363 276 306 .. 383 468 * Included in "other place" prior to 1978. † Previously listed as "display fireworks". ‡ Jumping crackers were not sold from 1976. § Included in "other proprietary fireworks" from 1978. || Included in "other proprietary fireworks" prior to 1978. ..Not separately available.