Chamber and committees

That is very helpful and interesting. Of course, it gets dark quite early in winter, so people are more likely to see fireworks at the time of day that you talked about.

I appreciate the long answer, because that explanation was required to give us the backdrop to how you got to where you are.

I guess that a range of options would have been available to you. However, it strikes me as a little bit concerning—this is my only point of concern—that the industry that will be affected most by the regulations is the one that did not sign up to the recommendations. That is an odd position to be in.

The three strands in the consultation were the sale, purchase and use of fireworks. It seems to me that, although support is high, at 84 per cent, for the control of purchase using a licence scheme, the support wanes slightly, going down to 67 per cent, for restrictions on the use of fireworks, and wanes even further, going down to 64 per cent, when we get down to restrictions on the sale of fireworks, which is perhaps the strand with which the BFA had a lot of issues.

Is it not an issue for you that the people who will go out of business or who will be most immediately affected by the bill do not agree with the way that we are proposing to tackle the problem?

The bill contains five periods of restrictions around the sale and use of fireworks. Could those be deemed to be arbitrary? For example, they include some religious festivals such as Diwali and the Sikh festival, Vaisakhi, but not others, such as Eid and Hanukkah. Might that be open to challenge in the future? Should the bill therefore allow flexibility for other religious or secular organisations to ask for exemptions from the restrictions?

The point of the licence might be to require people to go through some hoops, whether that is training or an online course, as is the case with other things. However, no online course is required in order to be allowed to buy kitchen knives, yet they are hugely dangerous, and no online course is required in order to be allowed to buy alcohol, yet it is a problem in society and causes antisocial behaviour. Why is the licence on its own not enough? Why do we have to go to the point of, in effect, closing down the industry in order to tackle the problem?

My only point is the obvious one, which is that I am concerned that the instrument is subject to the negative procedure. The issue was raised previously. The only way to deal with instruments under that procedure is to annul them in the chamber rather than to agree to them proactively as a committee, as is the case with the affirmative procedure. I want to feed back to the Government that, in the future, such sweeping regulations, on which we have taken a bit of evidence—not all positive—should be dealt with via other forms of legislation or the affirmative procedure. That should be the case at the end of this extension period.

It is worth noting that many members, and the people to whom we spoke during evidence sessions, raised a number of valid concerns about some of the provisions. Although we understand the reason for the extension to September 2022—all of us are willing to give the Government the benefit of the doubt on this occasion, given the circumstances that we are in—we do so with those reservations, specifically around the elongation of the timescale and the very restrictive nature of the regulations.

We, as a party, are happy to support the regulations, but we do so reluctantly, and we are reluctant about the method by which we are asked to do it.

Good morning. Do not worry, Mr Hay: we have all had to deal with that crossing over the years, whether on the old bridge or the new one.

I want to get a feel for the firework review group, because it played an integral part in the formation of the bill that we are analysing as a committee. Essentially, I want to get a feel from you as to how we have ended up where we are with the proposals.

First, could you talk a little about the volume of recommendations that you came up with? Specifically, were the decisions on them that were reached by the review group unanimous? If not, which recommendations were perhaps more controversial, or were decided on by majority rather than unanimously? If they were decided by majority, by how much did they pass, and who dissented from those specific recommendations?

I will maybe come back in later. Thank you, convener.

I have a final question. I am absolutely playing devil’s advocate, because we have heard evidence about attacks on emergency services and the effect that they have on a community. Everyone acknowledges and accepts that those attacks are abhorrent, but people will question whether we are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Is there a reason why we are introducing laws to restrict the purchase, sale and use of fireworks across the whole of the population when it is a minority of people who misuse and abuse them, in the same way that a minority of people misuse kitchen knives or alcohol, and third party objects are used to fuel antisocial behaviour? Are we punishing the majority because of the minority? That is a valid question that we will have to answer as the bill progresses.

Perhaps the problem here arises in the move from simple possession of a pyrotechnic to possession while

“travelling to, in the immediate vicinity of ... a designated venue ... or ... a public procession, or ... a public assembly.”

Public processions and assemblies happen in public places such as George Square or Princes Street. The fact that the term “travelling to” is so vague is perhaps part of the problem. After all, anyone could reasonably say that they were not “travelling to” a venue or procession. That would be the immediate defence; it would be argued that what was illegal was not possession of the item itself, but possessing it while “travelling to” an event. Is that the sort of vagueness that you are trying to avoid?

To be honest, I think that these questions are probably for the minister, but I get the impression that the problem that we are trying to fix is people chucking flares at football games or certain religious processions.