16th November 2021

For those of you who missed the 5th parliamentary debate, here is the Hansard transcript: https://hansard.parliament.uk/…/E3C…/FireworksSaleAndUse

You can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN-o7RyDzZw If your MP spoke at the debate please write them a quick email to say thank you

We were delighted to see so many passionate MPs speaking. They were only allowed three minutes each and the number of MPs allowed to speak was limited. We noted how frustrated they were to be “back again, having the same debate” with no movement from the government.

We were disappointed in the Minister’s reply but take from it that even he thought we would be back again next year. He realises this issue is not going away.

It has been said that we are saying the same thing every year. That is because the same awful things are happening every year. This year we can, very sadly, add human tragedy to the list. When will it end? Who knows? All I do know is that this campaign has managed to bring this problem out into the open. People who would like the firework laws amended have been given a voice.

November 2021

OUR PETITION WILL BE DEBATED.

November 8th 2021 will be the 5th Firework Campaign debate. The petition is the 6th that has achieved over 100,000 signatures. We hope that Elliot Colburn MP will do us proud in his opening speech.

March 2021

OUR PETITION REACHED OVER 300,000 AGAIN.

As expected our petition easily exceeded the 100,000 that is needed to be considered for a parliamentary debate. We are hoping the debate will be held later in the year, more towards the “firework season” (which sadly, is virtually all autumn and winter). Please ‘like’ the FIREWORK CAMPAIGN facebook page to keep up with any news.

July 2020

THE LONG-AWAITED LATEST FIREWORK PETITION.

Please share to all your contacts.. if you can write something to put with it…like……. I know it is out of season but this will prove it is not a kneejerk reaction and we have problems all year with random fireworks. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/319891

Limit the Sale and Use of Fireworks to Organisers of Licensed Displays Only

Current legislation allows for public use of fireworks 16 hours a day, every day, making it impossible for vulnerable groups to take precautions against the distress they can cause. Better enforcement of existing law is insufficient; limiting their sale & use to licensed displays only is necessary.

Restrictions on the sale & use of fireworks has huge public support and is backed by several human and animal charities. Limiting the sale & use of fireworks to displays only, by introducing licensing via local authorities, would help to protect vulnerable people and animals from the distress and anxiety caused by unexpected firework noise & pollution. Legislation that balances people’s desires for firework displays, and individual rights to not be distressed throughout the year, is needed now. Sign this petition

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At 100,000 signatures, this petition will be considered for debate in Parliament

Remember to verify your signature in your emails.

We really need this on to blow their socks off so please do your best with this one.. It’s our best yet 

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/319891

January 2020

We have a new government and we are hoping the new petitions committee will decide to debate the latest petition. It was stopped by the general election, after just a few weeks (18.10.10 – 6.11.19) having reached over 305,000 signatures. Astounding results. We await the new select committee with baited breath. We are finding that the petitions that take off quickest are the ones asking for a ban on public use and sales.

November 2019

The Scottish Parliament published their reports – Public Attitudes Towards Fireworks In Scotland, A Consultation on fireworks in Scotland, Fireworks Legislation and Impacts: International Evidence Review

The Petitions Committee published their report on 5/11/19.

Sainsburys was the first supermarket to STOP selling fireworks, let’s hope many more follow.

That’s all so far. It has to be said though, the rhetoric is changing, there is a lot more support for change from people and organisations not previously interested.

Oh and our change . org petition is still running up to 558,000 at the moment. I would really like to get to 1,000,000, (or more)

August 2019

The Petitions Committee decided to have their own inquiry due to be released 5th November 2019

The Scottish Government decided to have their own consultation.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards said they would collect data on firework use.

June 2019

The Fireworks Inquiry is ongoing.

The actual inquiry is on June 11th. I was invited to speak but sadly I am in Montana. Sue Kerr is going to speak on FABs behalf , thankfully, it was a chance we couldn’t miss!. If you want to watch that inquiry it will more than likely be on Parliament TV. Look at this link closer to the date. We still have the two petitions running, so please if you haven’t signed both yet, do that. I took the change.org one to OPSS along with 4 letters from the admin team. I have had no reply to them at all, which I consider to be very rude! I imagine they have no way to answer them, to be honest. The government has nothing at all to back up any of their statements. Anyway, moving swiftly on. The debate in November was eventful, to say the least. We were delighted with Helen Jones MP as a very worthy supporter of the cause. The final minutes were a wonder to behold. I think it is fair to say that the government didn’t have a leg to stand on much as they tried. We are gathering information at the moment to hopefully take to Helen in the next few months, maybe when the ‘B-word’ deal is done or otherwise. We have a new firework log and have incorporated a small survey to hopefully get a bigger picture of the problems people have to contend with over the firework season.

Again. here are the petition links still to be signed even though we have had the debate.

https://www.change.org/p/office-for-product-safety-and-standards-review-firework-rules-to-protect-animals-from-injury-and-distress?; https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/231147 If you signed the Government petition you will have heard by now that it has been given a debate date.. 26th November 2018. Very quick.  We are planning to take our Change.org petition to the OPSS in Birmingham next week.. I would love some support if anyone can make it. The date to be confirmed soon. Check https://www.facebook.com/FireworkDamage/ We are very busy asking members to write again to their MPs asking them to attend the debate. That’s about it for now.  Please keep sharing the petitions, both of them.https://www.change.org/p/office-for-product-safety-and-standards-review-firework-rules-to-protect-animals-from-injury-and-distress?https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/231147″>https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/231147

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Well as you will see from the Hansard report on the debate, nothing changed. Well I say nothing changed, actually, there were a lot more MPs attending the debate and a greater feeling of desire to change.The Office of Product Safety and Standards was set up as promised by the Minister of BEIS at the time (now out of office) It took some months to staff and has now begun to work properly one imagines. We decided to use Change.org as the platform for our 2018 petition which is being supported by the RSPCA. We will be taking it to the OPSS when we feel we have enough signatures. At the time of writing this we have close to 300,000, in three weeks and two days. We decided to use Change.org because we would then be able to update our signatories and felt it would work better that way.It seems to have been a good decision 300,000 later.

Our petition achieved 100,000 signatures in less than 5 weeks and a debate is scheduled for 29th January 2018 in Westminster Hall at 4.30pm.

At the moment the petition has slowed down. There are two reasons for this, the first is that the government reply to the petition even at 10,000 signatures was very negative. The second reason is that now the debate is scheduled we have publicized the petition less. More signatures are always welcome, so please sign if you haven’t.

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October 2017