Firework control zones: guidance for local authorities

1. Introduction

In 2019, the Scottish Government launched the national public consultation on fireworks "Your experiences, your ideas, your views".^[1] The consultation started a conversation with the people of Scotland about their views and experiences of fireworks, both good and bad. Overall, 16,420 responses were received, displaying a widespread interest from members of the public and stakeholder organisations. Analysis of these responses demonstrated a strong desire for change in the relationship that Scotland has with fireworks, and a desire for greater restrictions on the sale and use of fireworks.

Following this, the former Minister for Community Safety established the Firework Review Group, which brought together key organisations with a direct interest in fireworks, including representatives from the fireworks industry, NHS, animal welfare organisations, the emergency services, and local government, as well as community representatives. The Group considered the legislative options for change to how fireworks are supplied and used in Scotland.

The Firework Review Group's Report to the Scottish Government,^[2] made a series of recommendations. One recommendation was that provision should be made for areas to be introduced where it is not permitted for fireworks to be set off by the general public, with clear systems in place for communities to have a say in where these areas should be introduced. The Group recognised this as offering the potential for targeted localised approaches based on the specific circumstances within different areas and communities.

A number of the Group's recommendations were taken forward through The Fireworks (Scotland) Miscellaneous Amendments Regulations 2021. These regulations restrict the hours that F2 and F3 fireworks can be supplied to and used by the general public, and limit the quantity of fireworks that can be supplied to the general public to 5kg at any one time.

The Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Bill 2022 was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 1 February 2022 to take forward the Group's remaining recommendations. The Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 29 June 2022 and received Royal Assent on 8 August 2022, at which point it became the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022 ("the Act"). The Act is designed to support a cultural shift in how fireworks and other pyrotechnic articles are used in Scotland. A key policy delivered by the Act provides each local authority with the power to designate a place (or places) within its area as a firework control zone.

The Act, and 2021 regulations, build upon existing, comprehensive restrictions and legislation around the use and supply of fireworks. An overview of existing legislation, regulations, and associated enforcement responsibilities was compiled by the Fireworks Review Group as part of their programme of work, and is featured as an Annex in their report to the Scottish Government.^[2] While it has been illegal to use fireworks in a public place for some time,^[3] firework control zones will extend this, where it is deemed appropriate to designate a zone, to cover all areas within a zone's boundaries, including private property.

This guidance document is the result of a significant period of meaningful co-development with the Firework Control Zones Working Group. The Working Group met between January 2023 and June 2023 to consider the evidence available and deliberate on the content of this guidance. To support this work, the Scottish Government held a series of in-person and online workshops for communities across Scotland between February 2023 and April 2023, with the outputs of these sessions used to inform development of this guidance. A number of stakeholder organisations also had the opportunity to provide evidence and feedback during co-development of the guidance, which was discussed and considered throughout the process.

1.1 Purpose of Guidance Document

Section 33 of the Act sets out that local authorities must have regard to any guidance issued by the Scottish Ministers, and that any such guidance must be published. The published guidance will be subject to future revisions or revocation as required by the Scottish Ministers.

The purpose of this guidance is to support local authorities to consider and designate firework control zones in their area. Local authorities must have regard to this guidance, as stated above. Therefore, while it is expected that local processes will be established which best support individual local circumstances, local authorities must take account of factors stated in this guidance.

1.2 Format of Guidance Document

This document has been designed to be used by local authority practitioners throughout the process of considering and designating a firework control zone. With this in mind, the document has been designed to be interactive. This subsection details the key features to be aware of.

Call-Out Boxes

Where there is a call-out box (such as that featured in section 1.1), this sets out the requirements in the Act itself, as opposed to the Scottish Government guidance. For ease, this has been paraphrased, however the wording as set out in the Act is included in Annex A.

Navigating the document (PDF only)

The PDF document includes a virtual navigation bar at the bottom of each page.

This icon will navigate to the cover page of the document.

This icon will navigate to the table of contents, where each heading and subheading is hyperlinked to redirect to the relevant section of the document upon being clicked.

These icons will move backwards and forwards by a page, respectively.

In order to make the guidance as interactive as possible, where another section of the guidance is referred to, this has been made bold and clickable. Clicking this will navigate to the relevant section of the guidance. For example, clicking on Introduction navigates back to the relevant section of the guidance.