---

Fireworks

Answer

The court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform is unable to provide conviction data for the illegal purchase of fireworks, as there is no such offence. The number of persons found guilty of throwing, casting or firing fireworks, broken down by police force area, is shown in Table 1. The offence of using adult fireworks during night hours is coded with a wide range of other fireworks offences within the Fireworks Act 2003, and separate conviction data therefore cannot be provided. Cases involving the use of fireworks as a weapon likely to cause human harm cannot be separated, as data is not held to that level of detail.In addition, penalty notices for disorder can be issued for a range of fireworks offences. The offence of throwing a firework in a public thoroughfare came into force on 8 August 2002; the offence of breach of the fireworks curfew was added to the PND Scheme on 11 October 2004. The number of penalty notices issued for these two offences for the years 2004-06 (January to June 2006—provisional) is included in Table 2.

Number of defendants found guilty of selected firework offences, in England and Wales, 2004 and 2005, broken down by police force area¹,²,³
	2004	2005
Throwing, casting or firing any fireworks in or onto any highway, street, etc, public place
Avon and Somerset	—	2
Cheshire	1	—
Cleveland	2	1
Cumbria	1	1
Devon and Cornwall	2	1
Dorset	—	1
Durham	1	2
Essex	1	2
Greater Manchester	2	2
Humberside	2	—
Kent	1	1
Lancashire	4	1
Leicestershire	3	2
Lincolnshire	4	1
Merseyside	2	—
Metropolitan police	3	—
North Yorkshire	1	1
Northumbria	4	2
Nottinghamshire	1	—
South Yorkshire	4	1
Staffordshire	1	—
Suffolk	1	2
Surrey	—	1
Sussex	1	—
Thames Valley	1	—
West Midlands	3	—
West Yorkshire	3	1
Gwent	—	1
North Wales	1	—
South Wales	5	—
Total	55	26
Contravening a prohibition imposed by fireworks regulations4
Greater Manchester	0	3
Lancashire	0	1
Leicestershire	1	0
Metropolitan police	5	7
Northumbria	0	2
South Yorkshire	1	0
Warwickshire	0	1
West Midlands	1	0
Dyfed-Powys	0	2
Gwent	0	1
South Wales	0	1
Total	8	18
¹ These data are on the principal offence basis. ² Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the police forces and courts. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. ³ Where a police force area has not been listed, there have been no convictions. 4 "Contravening a prohibition imposed by fireworks regulations" comprises a number of different offences. These include "Using adult fireworks during night hours when not exempt by 7(2)", "Prohibition of supply of fireworks", "Prohibition of supply of certain fireworks to the general public" and "Prohibition of supply of excessively loud category 3 fireworks". It is however not possible to separate these offences, as data is not collected to that level of detail.

Number of persons issued with penalty notices for disorder for selected firework offences, England and Wales, 2004 and 2005, and provisional data for January to June 2006¹,²
	2004	2005	January to June 2006²
Police force area	Throwing fireworks	Breach of fireworks curfew	Throwing fireworks	Breach of fireworks curfew	Throwing fireworks	Breach of fireworks curfew
Avon and Somerset	1	1	—	1	1	—
Bedfordshire	—	—	2	—	2	—
Cambridgeshire	2	—	2	—	2	—
Cheshire	2	—	5	—	—	—
Cleveland	1	—	11	2	—	1
Cumbria	—	—	5	—	2	—
Derbyshire	3	1	4	—	2	—
Devon and Cornwall	2	—	15	4	12	—
Dorset	—	—	8	1	9	—
Durham	—	—	2	—	—	—
Essex	6	1	15	—	6	—
Gloucestershire	—	1	1	1	1	2
Greater Manchester	9	—	44	—	30	—
Hampshire	4	1	10	2	4	—
Hertfordshire	—	—	7	—	4	—
Humberside	2	—	5	1	1	—
Kent	2	—	15	1	5	—
Lancashire	14	2	25	2	4	1
Leicestershire	2	1	1	—	—	—
Lincolnshire	5	—	35	4	12	1
London, City of	—	—	1	—	—	—
Merseyside	26	—	87	2	19	1
Metropolitan	25	—	78	1	25	1
Norfolk	1	—	2	—	—	—
North Yorkshire	1	—	1	—	1	—
Northamptonshire	2	—	7	1	—	1
Northumbria	—	—	5	—	4	—
Nottinghamshire	—	—	7	—	1	—
South Yorkshire	8	1	13	1	7	1
Staffordshire	6	—	15	1	17	—
Suffolk	2	—	3	—	2	—
Surrey	—	—	2	—	—	—
Sussex	9	—	57	5	16	2
Thames Valley	3	—	36	—	6	—
Warwickshire	3	—	3	—	—	—
West Mercia	—	—	9	—	5	—
West Midlands	7	1	25	—	8	—
West Yorkshire	18	—	34	1	6	—
Wiltshire	1	—	2	—	4	—
Dyfed-Powys	1	—	3	—	3	—
Gwent	1	1	12	—	5	—
North Wales	8	1	20	2	6	—
South Wales	—	—	8	—	—	—
England and Wales	177	12	642	33	232	11
¹ Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the police. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. ² Data for 2006 is from January to June only and is provisional.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

115031; 455 c1691-3W

Session

2006-07

Subjects

Fireworks Prosecutions

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk