Fireworks: Public Sales

My hon. Friend makes a good point, which I shall address later in my speech.

The 2003 Act, ...

My hon. Friend mentions our laws about fireworks. Although those laws are often enforced, cuts to...

My hon. Friend is right, and she anticipates a point that I will make later.

The Fireworks ...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

One more time, but then I must make some progress, in fairness to those who want to speak.

The hon. Lady is being generous in giving way. May I pick up on her point about decibels? There i...

“Silent fireworks” is a bit of a misnomer, because they are not entirely silent. Clearly they are...

If hon. Members will forgive me, I need to make some progress, because a lot of Members are waiti...

Will my hon. Friend give way?

I will take one more intervention and then I must press on.

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. My constituents the Snell family had a dog, Queenie...

The effect on animals has been raised with me, and I shall come to that in a moment.

Let us...

Will my hon. Friend give way?

I will take one more intervention—the very last one—and then I must finish.

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way. On the issue of noise, 584 of my constituent...

Yes, I am. My hon. Friend is quite right, and that goes back to the issue not only of regulation,...

Will my hon. Friend give way?

I am going to wind up, if my hon. Friend will permit me.

Even organised displays need regul...

Order. This debate can go on until 7.30 pm, so there is plenty of time. We have been notified tha...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr McCabe.

We nurture and protect our ch...

I vividly remember being at school and having to dodge my way along the path to the front gates i...

I wholeheartedly agree. Despite the law and the regulations, fireworks are so easy to purchase. P...

I enjoy taking part in e-petition debates, because although our world is governed by the parliame...

We have an enormous fireworks display in the centre of Ipswich every year. Getting on for half th...

I think I shall be going to Ipswich next November—that sounds wonderful. The situation is very mu...

Quite frankly, my hon. Friend should not have to do that—that is the nub of the problem. I agree ...

As a local authority councillor in the years before I was elected to this place, I had an excelle...

Using fireworks illegally could result in prosecution, a fine of up to £5,000 and a prison senten...

Yes, of course. Sanctions are only as strong as their enforcement regime. Without trading standar...

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr McCabe, and to follow the hon. Member...

The hon. Gentleman is making a rather curmudgeonly speech about fireworks, if he does not mind me...

I thank the hon. Gentleman, and I will try to be less curmudgeonly. I did not intend to sound lik...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr McCabe. I thank the hon. Member for Warring...

It is a pleasure to be able to say a few words in this debate. The petition is quite stark—it pro...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr McCabe. It is good to see this issue being ...

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr McCabe. I am glad to have the opportunity to speak o...

Is the hon. Lady as concerned as I am about fireworks being used against firefighters? She has gi...

The experience that the hon. Lady describes is absolutely terrifying. No community should have to...

It is good to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Howarth. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Wa...

Unfortunately, due to the Prime Minister’s statement I could not be here at the beginning of the ...

I totally agree with the right hon. Lady. When I say wildlife, I mean livestock, but we are talki...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Howarth.

I have been contacted by a l...

Of the 794 constituents who signed the petition in East Lothian, there is almost universal agreem...

Of course; as I have said, that was one of the points that was made time and again. People sit in...

May I express my pleasure at serving under your chairmanship, Mr Howarth? I also congratulate my ...

It is a pleasure as always to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Howarth, particularly in this imp...

My hon. Friends the Members for Clwyd South (Susan Elan Jones) and for Stroud (Dr Drew) said that...

I am delighted to take part in this debate on the e-petition calling for a change in the law to i...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairpersonship, Mr Howarth. I congratulate my hon. Friend t...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Howarth. I pay tribute to the hon. Member f...

Can the Minister tell us whether her Department now collects statistics on the number of prosecut...

I thank the hon. Lady for making that point. As some hon. Members have already outlined, when the...

I do not think that anyone would say that the police do not investigate. We are saying that the l...

I would like to refer to the hon. Gentleman’s comment and also to his earlier remark about an inc...

He did not say that.

Perhaps I misunderstood, but that is what I heard from this end. My suggestion is that the police...

If I heard the Minister correctly, she suggested—if she did not say—that the work of the Office f...

I will move on to that reference later in my speech, and to how potentially I, as the Minister re...

I am not aware of the circumstances that the Minister mentions. Were those fireworks seized from ...

To answer the hon. Lady’s direct question, I have the data regarding the volumes as opposed to ho...

Order. I do not think we can have mumbling from a sedentary position.

I said that the information I have is in regards to the volume and not to how that volume is made...

Has there been any investigation of the issue of inspections by trading standards, as opposed to ...

I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting his constituency concern. As he outlined, local trading s...

If I may just follow up on that, in metropolitan areas the fire and rescue authorities usually ha...

I thank my hon. Friend for his suggestion. I know that local forces work well with local authorit...

The Minister is being extremely generous with her time. I just want to ask her the question that ...

I hope to have a meeting, which I think may also have been offered by my predecessor, with hon. M...

It is really generous of the Minister to offer to meet those of us who have taken part in the deb...

I thank the hon. Lady for her thanks for my suggestion that we should have a meeting. However, as...

If I were to attend the meeting with the Minister, I would say to her that for me, the most impor...

I thank the hon. Lady for her comments, but as I have highlighted, I will not commit to a consult...

If the Scottish Government’s consultation comes back next year in favour of greater restrictions ...

I am afraid that I cannot commit to that today, because I do not know what the Scottish Governmen...

I take this opportunity to thank all Members who have participated in the debate and made some ve...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

One moment. The Minister has said—[Interruption.] No, I am not giving way; I have not finished my...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

I only have two minutes, so I am not giving way. Clear?

Two minutes? You have 10.

I have two minutes to wind up. The Minister has said that she wants to protect our emergency serv...