: Thank you for that answer, First Minister. I think
it is important that action is taken to curtail the use of
fireworks. There's no doubt in my mind that they've become a more
frequent problem, it seems to me, from around the end of Halloween
all the way through to the new year. And we know, as has quite rightly pointed out, that it's not just pets,
it's not just livestock, wildlife or young children, but our
military personnel, in particular those with post-traumatic stress
disorder, can suffer considerable harm, and it can trigger all
sorts of awful memories for them.
Can I ask you, in the meantime, if Wales doesn't have the powers
to take more concerted action, what work the Welsh Government
will do in order to promote the responsible use of fireworks
through things like guidance, which can be disseminated, then, to
particularly those who organise events where fireworks are going
to be let off? I think that these are useful things that could be
done by the Welsh Government with its existing powers, and also,
of course, there's the need to educate young people in our
schools. We often talk about the dangers of fireworks in our
schools for young people, but we don't often talk about the
impact that using them has on other people. I think that that is
something that perhaps could be done.
(First Minister of Wales): Llywydd, I agree with
all the points that the Member has made. What we want to see is
responsible use of fireworks. As it happens, I quite like a good
firework display myself; I enjoy seeing one. But you want to do
it in a way that doesn't cause the unintended harms that Darren
Millar has referred to.
We have worked with our local authorities and our police here in
Wales on the enforcement powers that they have. I know that the
Member will be interested that reports from the four Welsh police
forces after last week suggest quite a difference between those
forces that essentially police rural areas, who reported a quiet
bonfire night with very little calls on their services, and some
far, far more difficult moments in the South Wales
Police and Gwent Police areas, with utterly unacceptable
attacks on firefighters and on police officers when called to
deal with untoward incidents.
We did work with the UK Government in the run-up to this bonfire
night on a promotion campaign trying to persuade people to use
fireworks properly and responsibly. I'm very happy to go on doing
more of that, but I do think that there is a regulatory issue
here. The 2003 Act was put on the statute book because of the
aftermath of the millennium, when the widespread use of fireworks
appeared to carry on in the years immediately after it in a
not-very-acceptable way. So, the 2003 regulations did help to put
some shape around that and to bear down on the worst excesses. If
we're seeing that beginning to happen again, then looking again
at the regulations and doing more to make sure that fireworks are
responsibly sold and responsibly used, I think, would be a very
good use of Government time.
