Chamber and committees

I have to disagree in the strongest possible terms with what the member said. I do not support amendment 85 because it would mean repeating work that I have already done. I published the fireworks action plan in 2019, and it details all the non-legislative actions that the Government and all our partners are taking forward year after year after year. I encourage the member to read that document.

I will return to a comment that Mr Greene made earlier regarding terrorism. Causing an explosion that is “likely to endanger life”, which is an offence under the Explosive Substances Act 1883, can be aggravated as having a terrorist-related connection by the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Act 2021. I reassure the member that section 7 of the bill requires such offences to be disclosed.

I do not share the member’s very pessimistic attitude towards how the scheme will be rolled out. I reiterate that we need the appropriate time to gather the data in order to make the review meaningful. The five-year period strikes the right balance.

I sympathise with the intention behind amendment 88 and I can understand the desire for a rolling review period every five years, but I cannot support the proposal to reduce the reporting period. I assure the member that the on-going effectiveness of all policies will be continually monitored.

I ask Mr Greene not to press his amendments. If he does, I ask members not to support them.

I begin by emphasising that the permitted periods in the bill are broadly in line with existing traditional fireworks periods, which is when most retailers in Scotland are permitted to sell fireworks, and when use of fireworks by the general public is most prevalent.

I do not accept that point. I know that Pauline McNeill represents an area where there is a lot of misuse of fireworks. A few decades ago, we would all have understood bonfire night to be a night, but it has turned into an extended bonfire season.

Ms McNeill’s amendments would amount to a 16 per cent decrease in the period in which fireworks can be supplied and a 25 per cent reduction in the number of days on which they can be used. Work was done with key stakeholders in order to strike a balance. I feel that reducing the time periods by so much at this point would render meaningless all the work that has been done to get us to this point. This is the starting point in a journey of cultural change.

I recognise the strength of feeling that the firework control zone provisions have raised. I welcome the constructive discussions that have taken place on the subject, and I realise that, for some members, the provision for such zones does not go far enough. However, I have considered the options in great detail—at great length prior to the introduction of the bill, and again when I reflected on the recommendations in the Criminal Justice Committee’s stage 1 report—and, as with many aspects of the bill, there is a delicate balance to be achieved.

On the one hand, there is a need to further reduce unpredictable, but possibly legitimate, firework use; on the other hand, there is a need to ensure that there are limited, but necessary, exemptions when those are appropriate. As a result of those considerations, I lodged an amendment at stage 2 to remove the exemption for professional operators to deliver private displays in designated control zones, which would mean that fireworks could be used by a professional operator in a designated control zone only when that was for the purpose of a public fireworks display. That amendment was unanimously agreed to by the Criminal Justice Committee, which recognises the value of local organised public displays—as, I think, we all do—and what those can bring to communities.

Together, amendments 35, 36 and 82 seek to remove the exemptions for firework control zones that would apply consistently across Scotland. Amendment 35, if agreed to, would mean that there could be no use of fireworks at all in any designated control zones.

The current exemptions ensure that enforcement bodies would be able to continue to carry out their necessary duties in a designated zone, and they allow for businesses that are engaged in the manufacture or supply of fireworks to continue to carry out vital safety checks as part of due diligence. It is vital that those exemptions be retained.

The intention of amendments 36 and 82, although they approach the issue in slightly different ways, is that each local authority, on a case-by-case basis, could determine different exemptions for different control zones. Amendment 36 would allow local authorities to designate areas where no exemptions would apply, meaning that fireworks could not be set off at all, or that only certain groups of individuals would be permitted to set off fireworks. It would be a criminal offence to use fireworks in a control zone unless the individual or organisation involved were exempt. Given that, it is vital that the exemptions are applied consistently in all areas, so that people and organisations who are involved in fireworks displays, and others, can understand the law—we have been talking a little about those points in the debate—and how it applies to their activities.

Enabling those small variations, as well as very large differences, between the positions in different areas would, I think, add unnecessary complexity to those zones, which is something that I am really keen to avoid.

I think that that is part of the balance in trying to achieve the objectives of the bill and balance the interests of those who are involved. I thought very carefully, and for a long period, about public events—if that is what we are talking about specifically—still being allowed in firework control zones.

When I came to the chamber at stage 1, I said to members that there were a couple of areas about which I genuinely wanted to hear what they thought. One of those areas was exemptions for private companies and public displays. I listened carefully to what members said to me about that, and I have also listened to what stakeholders have said. I have thought about the matter carefully, and I think that it is a fine balance.

Obviously, it is up to members to decide whether I got that to the right point in the end, but I genuinely felt that public displays are not where the issue lies. I think that, by preventing public displays, we would not be achieving the right balance. That is why I came to that decision.

I share Jamie Greene’s views on the importance of firework safety. We debated this subject during stage 2 when he lodged a similar amendment. Much of what is included in amendment 85 reflects what was proposed in the British Fireworks Association’s 10-point plan. I have said on a number of occasions that I welcome much of the plan and the good progress that is being made in a number of the areas that it highlights.

Jamie Greene stated during stage 2 that he did not want this work to be left to policy and future Governments and that he preferred to have it committed into law in the bill. However, through my actions, I have already made very clear my strong commitment to firework safety, and I believe that it is not necessary or appropriate to use the bill to write into legislation already-stated policy commitments that have followed on from the already-published fireworks action plan of 2019.

I do not agree with the member. His amendment relates to existing legislation, while many of the provisions in the bill are new, so I cannot agree with him on that point.

I not only believe that the maximum penalties that are set out in the bill are proportionate and appropriate. I also believe that the applicable levels of penalty in other fireworks legislation are proportionate and appropriate. We are not aware of any specific compelling evidence that higher maximum penalties are necessary to deal with the offending behaviour in question.

During the evidence sessions at stage 1, representatives from the firework industry highlighted the fact that, in their view, maximum sentences are not routinely handed down. I may be pre-empting an intervention from Mr Findlay by saying that he might point to the lack of option in the 1875 act for a custodial sentence. However, the offences under that act are applicable throughout all UK jurisdictions. If a penalty of imprisonment were to be made available in Scotland only, that would make penalties across the UK inconsistent.

I will give way if Mr Findlay wishes to come back in.

Jamie Greene will understand that that is an attempt to balance all the different relevant interests. The careful consideration that the matter was given by the review group is represented, for the most part, in its recommendations and the provisions that we now have in the bill.

Amendments 80 and 81 would also mean that fireworks would be available for purchase for a number of days before their use would be permitted. I am concerned that that could lead to issues around stockpiling. In the bill, the days on which it is permitted for fireworks to be used is deliberately extended slightly beyond when fireworks can be supplied. That is in order to avoid a situation in which people buy fireworks towards the end of the supply period but are not able to use them when they intend to—for example, because of poor weather.

That element of the bill will minimise the possibility of individuals having to store fireworks from the last day of one permitted use period to the beginning of the next, which could lead to safety concerns about storage of fireworks in domestic premises.