Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of restricting the (a) sale and (b) use of fireworks on trends in the level of the illegal trade in fireworks.

No recent assessment has been made of the potential merits of giving local authorities the power to set up firework free zones or on the impact of restricting the sale and use of fireworks in respect of illegal trade.

The Government regularly engages with its counterparts in Scotland and will continue to discuss the impacts of their Firework Control Zones. The Government is keen to understand the outcomes the changes have made, before considering if similar changes are needed for England and Wales.