The Petitions Committee is today launching an inquiry into fireworks.
It has decided to do this because hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions through the petitions.parliament.uk site about fireworks over the last three years.
A current petition by Amy Cullen, which has been signed by nearly 300,000 people, calls for a ban on the sale of fireworks to the public and for fireworks displays to be restricted to licenced venues.
Other recent popular petitions have raised concerns about the noise and nuisance caused by fireworks and the effects on children, veterans suffering with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and animals, for example.
In the first stage of the inquiry, the Committee is asking for written evidence from lots of different organisations and groups, including central and local government, the emergency services, medical professionals, health and safety and accident prevention specialists, people who work with or sell fireworks, and cultural and religious groups for whom fireworks often have a special significance. Information from the written evidence – and from a survey of people who’ve signed petitions about fireworks – will be used to plan more ways for people to tell us what they think and a series of oral evidence hearings later this year.
The inquiry will lead to a report with recommendations to the Government. The report will be debated in the House of Commons and the Government will have to respond to the Committee's recommendations.