'Bonfire Night war zone' warning after SNP 'pause' fireworks licensing

The First Minster has defended his government’s decision to pause the licensing requirement, warning the move was taken “due to the cost of introducing it”.

Parts of Edinburgh have experienced mass anti-social behaviour linked to the misuse of fireworks, with the items frequently being turned on emergency services.

Under the legislation, agreed in 2022, members of the public would be required to apply and obtain a licences before being allowed to purchase, possess or use fireworks. But that part of the legislation has been paused.

Ash Regan, Independent MSP for Edinburgh Eastern who passed the legislation as former community safety minister, called on Mr Swinney to “commit to look again at implementing this law in full”.

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Speaking at First Minister’s Questions, she said: “This Parliament passed that law to protect both the public and our emergency services over three years ago and four bonfire nights since this law was enacted.

“Constituents and emergency services I worked with to bring this law remain at their wits’ end.”

Under the legislation, local authorities are able to introduce control zones. But Ms Regan, the architect of the law, claimed “firework control zones don’t work without control on purchasing as well”.

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She added: “Only the UK government, of course, can ban fireworks. Those communities are on the front line, and mine is one of them.

“This has become an annual Bonfire Night war zone in constituencies across Scotland. I think that they deserve for Scotland to use all the powers that we have available to us to help them.”

Ms Regan said “these communities are now bracing for impact”.

She said: “Firefighters, police and paramedics are continuously putting themselves in harm's way to protect the public. They deserve more than warm words - they deserve the delivery of the law.”

In response, Mr Swinney told MSPs “the majority of the Act has been implemented”, highlighting “support for local authorities to implement fireworks control zones to tackle hot-spots where disorder has been experienced”.

The First Minister added: “We’ve also introduced new offences for providing fireworks or pyrotechnics to children and using fireworks to attack emergency workers.

“The licensing system has been paused due to the cost of introducing it, at present. But that will be kept under review. Anyone taking part in illegal activity or disorder will expect a robust response from Police Scotland.”

In a letter sent to Holyrood’s criminal justice committee, SNP community safety minister Siobhian Brown said “after careful consideration and assessment”, the Scottish Government “decided to pause the implementation of restrictions to the days of supply and use of fireworks and the implementation of a licensing system for those wishing to use fireworks”.

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Ms Brown said this was “due to significant financial and resource consequences of introducing a complex licensing system for people who want to buy fireworks”.

She said: “We are keeping the pause under review, in the context of assessing how existing measures are impacting the nature and pattern of disorder over Bonfire Night periods.”