Written evidence submitted by Mr Jason Gulliver (FWS0237)

My experience on the subject of fireworks in the UK:

Fireworks are a huge passion of mine and so many other people in the UK. And I have fired private shows and pub displays with no accidents or unsafe acts, relying on category 2 and 3 retail fireworks to entertain the audience. Fireworks have a culture here dating back centuries and are also a key part of many celebrations such as weddings and religious festivals like Diwali.

A ban on sales of category 2 and category 3 pyrotechnic devices to the public would also mean a restriction to many smaller, low budget, "organised displays" held by pubs, clubs, sports clubs, charity organisations and scouts groups to list a few examples, and bonfire night is often their biggest night of the year. In fact I had the privilege of helping a local shop choose the fireworks for a local scouts display this year.

These displays can be hosted by the landlord or club leader and fired by untrained, non professionals using category 2 or 3 fireworks available from public retail outlets. What would happen to these displays? Would they have to be professionally hosted at extra cost? Or would they have to settle for bigger, more expensive Category 4 displays by professional companies, causing more upset to a minority who dislike fireworks. Retail outlets will no longer be there to support these displays. Many of these local displays are fired by non professionals such as committee members, landlords, locals & scouts leaders, and rely solely on retail fireworks to go ahead, which has been the case for decades.

If you decide to ban regulated sales I will be forced to join professional companies to continue putting on my displays, as with many people in the UK. It will then get a heck of a lot noisier, with local village shows hiring bigger CAT 4 shows all over the place, and a lot of us aiming to become qualified firers in order to work part time during the busy display periods when demand will be through the roof due to displays popping up left right & centre at the venues mentioned. A lot worse for the few who don't like fireworks.

It’s always the big rockets and barrages that get the "oohs and aahs" at any private and public display. The noise is just a by-product of the effect, but it is as important in any display experience as the light and colour. This is why so many sonic effects are produced for fireworks (whistles, crackles, hummers, screechers, fizz etc..).
For the bigger, more sky filling effects, a larger blast radius is required to propel the “stars” further across the sky. There is no other way than a larger burst charge hence a bigger bang. This then requires more lift propellant to raise the firework further away (upwards) to ensure no effect reaches ground level under the current CE regulations.
 

About the industrial aspects:
Most display companies turn to retail as well to help keep business afloat. As noted in debate of petition 109702, the firework industry is a "£180 million industry that provides employment to at least 250 people directly and supports thousands of others in the supply chain." This is a highly taxed industry due to the nature of preparing, storing, importing/ exporting and manufacture of hazardous and explosive goods, not including a further 20% VAT on top for public sales. this is also why they can be fairly expensive. Although not as expensive as the habit of smoking. At such uncertain times, we do not want to be damaging thriving industries in the UK, with existing trade links outside of the EU, and 2019 is expected to be a good year for growth within the fireworks industry.

Further facts and information worth viewing:
Although the largest petition has been signed by 307,051 people, who are responsible for signing the other petitions that you added together to get the false total of 750,000. This is only a small fraction of the population of the UK which is sitting at well over 66million, 45,775,800 of which make up the electorate ( https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/elections/electoralregistration/bulletins/electoralstatisticsforuk/2018 ). This works out at only 0.5% of the total population, 0.67% of the electorate. Surely the other 99.5% of us do not deserve to be punished due to a very small group and the even smaller irresponsible minority, often using illegal fireworks such as Bangers & Air-bombs, bought from social media sales, antisocially. this leads on to my next point...

Any legal consumer firework product is perfectly safe thanks to rigorous testing under the current CE regulations when used as intended and stated on the label. If a person wishes to ignore safety distances, hold the firework or throw it then that makes the user responsible not the product.

Kitchen knives are well known to be lethal weapons when misused, especially with the rise in knife crime in recent years, but yet again, the user is to blame for any incidents, not the product, and rightly so! Surely the same logic must apply to all products that pose a minor risk in the wrong hands?

A restriction of regulated, safe and legal consumer fireworks would open the floodgates for the illegal black market products, which do not carry the CE mark of conformity, will not be restricted by explosive content measures and may include lethal Category 4 fireworks. This will only create a far greater issue with antisocial misuse of fireworks, including far more dangerous items than those from licenced retailers.

Although animals do have more sensitive hearing than humans, There is an element of the owner enhancing the distress in their animals through excessive fussing and crowding the animal. Many forms of wildlife learn to deal with loud noises such as those living in close proximity to busy or noisy areas, gun dogs, police & military, horses and pets like mine that are desensitized a few weeks before using firework sounds, as advised. She now watches out of the window after just 1 year.

- In 2016 Direct Line Pet Insurance announced that A STAGGERING 64,000 dogs are feared to have died over the last year after being attacked by rival dogs. That really does put things into perspective. During the past 10 years there have been 21 human fatalities caused by dog attacks (13 of which were children)
https://www.directlinegroup.com/media/news/brand/2017/20171019.aspx

- 15000 sheep were killed by dogs last year
https://www.farminguk.com/News/15-000-sheep-were-killed-by-loose-dogs-in-2016-figures-show_45404.html
Horse accidents and cause... Figures from The British Horse Society covering the period 2000-2016.
- Caused by dog (1065)
- Caused by Firework (92)

Outdoor fireworks available to the public (categories 2 & 3) MUST not emit over 120 dB of sound under the latest 2015 EU regulations (BS-EN 15947), as with outstanding British standard (BS7114: part 2). 120 db is also the average volume of a thunderstorm directly overhead. A dog's bark can also register at 100-120db. However the exposure to the maximum of 120db in a firework is in “fraction of a second” bursts and is a peak volume level not an average noise level like a repetitive bark.

Based on a plethora of FOI requests sent to Police forces, Fire & Rescue services, NHS and local councils across the whole of the UK, there is a regular pattern of 0 or >5 incidents involving fireworks attacks on emergency services each year, and only a handful of noise complaints from fireworks for each county, out of hundreds per year. The same trend appears when viewing hospital and A&E statistics. However, the number of noise complaints from barking often exceeds 30% of ALL complaints per year.

It seems that the key to solving many of these issues is not through tighter regulations, but further education and policing operations to stamp out illegal use and sales on local levels.

April 2019