Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, pursuant to the Answer of 17 November 2025, to Question 88976 on Fireworks: Injuries, how many prosecutions have there been in each of the past five financial years for (a) deliberately and (b) negligently causing an injury with a firework.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
Acting recklessly with or throwing fireworks can cause life-changing injuries. These actions can result in criminal prosecution and/or civil liability, depending on whether the injury was caused deliberately, recklessly or negligently.
There are numerous offences this can fall under, including: s.39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (common assault/battery) or from the+ Offences against the Person Act 1861: s47 (assault occasioning actual bodily harm), s20 (wounding/inflicting grievous bodily harm), s18 (wounding/causing grievous bodily harm with intent to do grievous bodily harm), s28 (grievous bodily harm by the unlawful explosion of gunpowder or other explosive substance), s29 (unlawfully causing gunpowder or some other explosive substance to explode with intent to cause grievous bodily harm). The charge chosen will depend on the facts and circumstances of the case and the level of injury caused.
During the most recently available 12 months (ending June 2025) management information shows that a total of 102,493 offences charged by way of the above legislation, commenced prosecution in magistrates’ courts. Of these charges the CPS is unable to identify which offences specifically involved fireworks as opposed to physical assaults or the use of other types of weapons, without a manual review of each case, which would incur disproportionate cost.
If an injury is caused through negligence (e.g. due to an accident at a private or publicly organised display) the person who set off the firework (or the event organiser/landowner) may be sued for damages in a civil court. Information on proceedings in civil courts is held by HM Courts and Tribunals Service.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many people have been prosecuted for the dangerous use of fireworks each year for the past five years.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
Offences relating to the dangerous use or misuse of fireworks can be prosecuted under Section
80 of the Explosives Act 1875 (throw or light a firework in a highway, street or public place),
Section 131(1(d)) and Section 161(2(b)) of Highways Act 1980 (light a fire/discharge a
firework/firearm within 50 feet of a public highway), Section 28 of the Town and Police Clauses
Act 1847 (throw a firework/missile/discharge a firearm/light a fire in the street) and Section 2 of
the Football (Offences) Act 1991 (throw a missile onto a football pitch or adjacent area).
Management information is held by the CPS showing the number of offences in which a
prosecution commenced during each of the last five years for the above legislation.
| 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 |
Explosives Act 1875 { 80 } | 13 | 23 | 15 | 21 | 16 |
Football (Offences) Act 1991 { 2 and 5 } | 14 | 62 | 170 | 154 | 119 |
Highways Act 1980 { 161(2)(b) } | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Town Police Clauses Act 1847 { 28 } | 6 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 6 |
Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System | |||||
Of these charges the CPS is unable to identify which offences specifically involved fireworks as
opposed to other types of missiles, without a manual review of each case, which would incur
disproportionate cost.
There is no indication of the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at
the time of finalisation. It is often the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than
one offence.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many days were lost to sickness absence by civil servants in their Department (a) in total and (b) on average per employee between 5 July 2024 and 4 July 2025.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
Sickness absence data for the Civil Service, including departmental breakdowns is published annually, and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sickness-absence.
The next update will be for the year ending 31st March 2025.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, with reference to his speech at the 2025 RUSI Annual Security Lecture on 29 May 2025, if he will list the (a) Ministers and (b) Government officials who approved the content of the speech; and whether Number 10 had advance sight of the speech.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The process was followed as set out in the Ministerial Code.
The Attorney General made a further statement on the speech in question which is publicly available.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many cyclists have been prosecuted under the provisions of Section 35 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861 in each year since 2000.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The safety of our roads is a key priority for this government.
We have amended the Crime and Policing Bill to provide for new offences and penalties for dangerous cycling, updating legislation that is over 160 years old, to ensure that the tiny minority who recklessly disregard others face the full force of the law.
Cases of causing death or serious injury by dangerous or careless driving have usually been prosecuted under section 35 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (OAPA 1861), but this offence applies to any person ‘having charge of any carriage or other vehicle’ and therefore does not solely apply to cyclists.
The earliest data held by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for prosecutions of offences under s. 35 OAPA 1861 is from 2005. Between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2024, the CPS authorised charges for 362 offences of causing injury by wanton and furious driving contrary to s. 35.
Of these charges, the CPS is unable to identify which offences involved defendants who were cyclists, without a manual review of each case, which would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2025 to Question 36473 on Human Trafficking: Cambridgeshire, how many of the (a) 56 cases flagged for modern slavery and (b) 11 cases with a monitoring flag for child abuse, involved (i) victims and (ii) perpetrators from (A) Guinea-Bissau and (B) Portugal.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has conducted a full manual review of the 11 case files with a monitoring flag for child abuse. It could not ascertain whether the defendants and victims were from Guinea-Bissau or Portugal from the information provided by the police.
The CPS were unable to undertake a full manual review of the remaining cases with a monitoring flag for modern slavery as to obtain this information would incur a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many prosecutions for child-trafficking there have been in Cambridgeshire since 2010.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
This Government is committed to tackling the scourge of child trafficking. Children who are exploited by gangs for criminal purposes will now receive greater protection under the Government’s flagship Crime and Policing Bill, with the introduction of a new offence of child criminal exploitation. The Bill represents the biggest package of measures on crime and policing for decades, with new measures to cut crime and make our streets safer.
From January 2010 to September 2024, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecuted 56 cases flagged for modern slavery in the Cambridge Police Force Area.
Data is recorded by defendant, rather than victim, and therefore modern slavery flagged cases may involve adult or child victims. Of these 56 cases, 11 cases also had a case monitoring flag applied for child abuse, which covers several different offences, including child trafficking.
The CPS is working closely with law enforcement via the Modern Slavery Criminal Justice Action Group – a joint working group led by CPS National Lead for Human Trafficking and the National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime – to identify areas of improvement to promote early advice and increase referrals and prosecutions of modern slavery cases.