Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many people have been prosecuted for setting off fireworks after curfew hours in each of the last two years.

Regulation 7 of the Fireworks Regulations 2004 prohibits the use of certain fireworks at night other than on a permitted fireworks night or by a person employed by a local authority putting on a fireworks display, national public celebration or a national commemorative event. The Regulation defines ‘night hours’ as 11pm – 7am. All such offences are initially prosecuted by the police under the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (Specified Proceedings) Order 1999. The CPS only prosecutes cases where the offence is contested or where the proceedings include more serious non-specified offences.

Records held by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) identify the number of contested offences in which a prosecution commenced and reached a first hearing in magistrates’ courts, rather than the number of successful prosecutions.

During the last two years the number of these offences, prosecuted by the CPS, was as follows:

There is no indication of the number of individual defendants prosecuted for these offences or the final outcome of the prosecution proceeding or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at the time of finalization.