The Ongoing Developments Of UK Regulation

Transport, Storage, Standards For Fireworks And Brexit

By Andy Hubble MIExpE

The ongoing developments of UK regulations: Transport, storage, standards and Brexit was presented at the 17th International Symposium on Fireworks at Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on May 6th 2019 By Andy Hubble, Director of Star Fireworks, UK. This is an edited version of the original paper, prepared for print before October 31st, 2019.

An informed journey through British regulations - past, present and future and a look at how domestic legislation entwines with European Directives and how those could (or perhaps won’t) be affected when the UK leaves the EU. An examination of the original Explosives Act of 1875, and its successor that took 130 years to arrive, together with its own replacement just nine years later - the Explosives Regulations 2014.

This paper includes a discussion of problems each presented, the solutions and an examination of the British two-tier approach to storage licensing - together with loopholes some have found. The author writes about his own experience helping develop the Regulations as a fireworks representative on government working groups, and subsequent work producing guidance.

The paper includes a discussion of transport and how Europe generally follows ADR (Accord europeen relative au transport international des marchandises Dangereuses par Route) for transport by road, but also how individual nations have their own variations and national derogations to ADR. The UK has a range of derogations that are specifically aimed at fireworks that facilitate easier movement of product, but only within its own territorial waters.

Finally, a look at the European Standard for fireworks and the Safety Directive that applies to our industry, and how it is applied today, and the fascinating range of hurdles the UK faces as it cuts its ties with the European Union. An insight on the extensive discussions that still go on today and the author’s experiences as a professional firework display industry representative on the European Directive government group and representing the UK

Introduction

The regulatory framework within the United Kingdom is an interesting mixture of domestic and European-based law. To an outsider, it may seem confusing to have some laws home-grown, and others produced by the European Union, but it does work and it is quite effective and it does allow for the freer movement of goods among countries.

The UK does have a very broad range of legislation affecting the fireworks industry, and this paper will only touch on the very core sets of regulations that cover transport, storage and standards, but it should be born in mind that these are not the only laws that govern the industry. One very significant piece of legislation that is not only specific to explosives is the Health and Safety at Work Act (HASWA) which dates back to 1974. This domestic regulation places duties on employers to maintain a safe working environment for everyone, not just their employees, and so where an apparent gap in the law may exist, in fact there may not be any such gap because HASWA already places a legal duty to do a particular activity safely.

Storage regulations in the UK are essentially home-grown, with some references to European Directives. They have evolved quite considerably in recent years, but do allow some activities and types of storage that people reading this paper may raise an eyebrow to. Storage is now governed by the Explosives Regulations 2014 (ER2014), and prior to that the Manufacture and Storage of Explosives Regulations 2005 (MSER), but prior to that there had been no change in the storage laws since the Explosives Act of 1875. So for 130 years the United Kingdom was governed by the same, somewhat dated regulations.

Transport is a different matter. For transport there are two sets of regulations which work in tandem with one another. The first, which governs transport rules throughout Europe and is known as ADR, which stands for Accord européen relatif au transport international des marchandises Dangereuses par Route. ADR is a treaty signed between a number of member states that allows for the movement of dangerous goods between one signatory country and another, providing that specific conditions are met. This is the first set of regulations. The second set is our domestic regulations for the transport of dangerous goods, and these effectively require a duty- holder to comply with ADR, but in addition they set some additional national requirements that are not contained within ADR, and also amend ADR slightly, for example in terms of the mass of explosives that may be carried before full ADR regulations must be complied with, or by adding additional steps for the classification of explosives including fireworks. The UK Department for Transport has the power to issue derogations to the transport regulations which provide exemptions from parts of ADR or the UK domestic transport regulations. There are currently 17 road derogations, six of which are relevant to the operation of a fireworks business. These derogations only apply to transport within the United Kingdom.

In terms of product safety standards, the UK applies the European- wide CE mark to its fireworks that are ‘placed upon the market’, a term used throughout the European Union. The pan-European Standard must be applied by all member states, and is developed by working groups of experts working within the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). This is a relatively recent development within the UK, prior to 2010 the UK had its own British Standard (BS7114:2:88) to which all consumer fireworks had to conform.

Professional fireworks did not have a standard, but they were covered by the afore-mentioned domestic legislation including the general duties contained within the HASWA.

All of these pieces of legislation come with supporting guidance documents, and the guidance for the storage regulations alone (ER2014) run to hundreds of pages, so this paper seeks to only provide an outline of UK regulations and the processes through which they are developed.

Storage

The Explosives Act of 1875 describes itself as, ‘An Act to amend the Law with respect to manufacturing keeping, selling, carrying and importing Gunpowder, Nitro-glycerine, and other explosives substances.’ (Explosives Act 18751). Whilst written in the 19th Century, this was a heavyweight piece of legislation that stood the test of time and was in widespread use in the UK right up until 2005. In fact, certain provisions of it have not been repealed and are still in force.

The regulations as originally written named a range of penalties for various breaches of factory and magazine rules, from fines of forty shilling to fifty pounds. Today, those breaches could cost ten thousand times as much or even more. Amongst the extensive text were sections that required that persons under the age of sixteen may not be employed except in the presence and under the supervision ‘of some grown-up person’ - or in other words, children could work in explosive stores provided they had someone of at least 18 years old supervising them. This was changed in an amendment in 1923.

The Explosives Act 1875 was supported by documents known as ‘Orders in Council’, documents which are drafted and controlled by the government and define rules for aspects of the legislation they relate to. The main UK provisions that are still in force today concern restrictions on the sale of gunpowder and the offence of throwing fireworks in a thoroughfare, as well as some legal definitions.

The Explosives Act 1875 contained a licensing regime that permitted the storage of explosives through one of two routes, either through the issue of a licence creating a licensed store, or alternatively for the storage of smaller quantities of explosives through the registration of a premises to store explosives. Registered premises were small stores. The Act permitted the storage of up to two hundred pounds in weight of gunpowder in buildings detached from dwellings, and up to one hundred pounds in weight for powder stored in dwellings. The term gunpowder was used to describe a wide array of explosives, including fireworks.

The document lasted for 130 years with a few amendments along the way. It was eventually replaced in 2005 by the Manufacture and Storage of Explosives Regulations, known within the UK as MSER. The Regulations repealed most of the Explosives Act 1875 and 37 items of the secondary legislation and replaced them with a new regulatory regime (Explanatory memorandum to the Manufacture and Storage of Explosives Regulations 20052).

The new regulations made significant changes to the 1875 Act regime. They also introduced changes concerning fees for licensing, together with provisions for future increases in the fee. To give an indication of the change, the old fee was 13 British pounds, which today is around 17 US dollars, but MSER amended this to 60 British pounds. Registrations were just that; local authorities maintained a register of registered stores within their local area and the process for registration was very much simplified compared to licence application. The new MSER Regulations recognised that there had been significant changes to industry and the wider economy, for example in the shift from factory-based production to on-site mixing, the growing numbers of supermarkets and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) stores, and the large growth of public firework display and battle re-enactment events and movie special effects. The new MSER sought to streamline some of the wide range of regulations that had overlaid the 1875 Act since its inception.

The key features of MSER included a requirement that anyone manufacturing or storing explosives must take appropriate measures to prevent fire or explosion; to limit the extent of any fire or explosion should one occur; and protect people in the event of there being a fire or explosion. They specified separation distances that must be maintained between explosive stores and inhabited buildings and a requirement that in the event of the separation zone distance being compromised then the quantity must be reduced.

Under MSER, stores that hold less than two tonnes of explosives were licensed by the local authority or the police, and those that store over this two tonne threshold are licensed by the Explosives Inspectorate of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). HSE would not grant a licence without the assent of the local authority (or local Council) that covered the area in which the store or factory was located. The assent process is essentially a public hearing that enables the views of local people to be taken into consideration and representations to be made by local government organisations in the area, prior to a licence being issued. Views may only relate to genuine health and safety matters. A significant new addition to MSER was a prohibition on the supply or acquisition of more than 50 kgs of fireworks without evidence of a legal place of storage.

It is a requirement that a consultation process and impact assessment is carried out prior to the introduction of new legislation, and for MSER industry-related organisations made up the biggest of responses, citing concerns that there should be suitable transitional arrangements, and local authorities were concerned over enforcement issues in relation to fireworks. One other key area in relation to MSER is a document that was produced in tandem with it, a document called the Approved Code of Practice (or ACOP). The ACOP is a guidance document on the implementation of the law that has a specific legal standing in the UK.The ACOP to MSER was 231 pages long.

Explosives Regulations 2014 - the situation today

The publication of a UK government commissioned report in November 2011 by Professor Ragnar Löfstedt identified a need to simplify the health and safety regulatory framework within the UK3. Prof. Löfstedt identified that the sheer volume of regulation was a key concern for many businesses, and although considerably less than even 35 years previously, that businesses were becoming heavily burdened by so many regulations or were being forced to use health and safety consultants. Prof. Löfstedt made a recommendation that HSE undertake a programme of sector- specific consolidations to be completed by April 2015. In the same report, Löfstedt also found that the wording of some ACOPs could be improved, and that some were out-of-date, too lengthy, technical and complex, and therefore recommended that HSE should review all ACOPS

ER20144 was born out of that report, and essentially is a consolidation of a wide range of different regulations that were operating alongside MSER 2005. ER2014 consolidates five sets of Regulations and removes duplication in certain long standing national law and incorporates pre-existing legislation which implemented relevant EU law. It also introduced aspects that are irrelevant to fireworks, such as the storage of Ammonium Nitrate Blasting Intermediate (ANBI) and provisions for licenses issued by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR). The new regulations removed the concept of registered premises and required that all premises were now licensed, but maintained the same threshold as MSER, namely that for masses of up to 2000 kg of explosives the local authority issues the licence, but above this quantity the licence is issued by the Health and Safety Executive, the UK government agency responsible for the regulation and enforcement of workplace health and safety. An HSE issued storage or factory licence still requires the assent of the Local Authority in which the store will be located.

Another key feature of the new regulations was the amount of consultation and involvement of industry. Working groups of industry stake-holders were set up by the Health and Safety Executive to pore over proposals and make recommendations on improvements. Additionally, following the Löfstedt review, the concept of the ACOP was withdrawn, and it was replaced by over-arching guidance which focuses on safety and security provisions, and then subsector specific guidance for individual industries - for example for ‘Fireworks in retail in premises’, the ‘Wholesale storage of fireworks’, and ‘Professional firework display operators’. These documents were produced with the contribution of industry representatives throughout the entire drafting process.

Local Authorities in the UK usually pass responsibility for explosives licensing to the Trading Standards Department of the local Council, although in some Metropolitan areas (for example London, Manchester, Birmingham etc.) this responsibility passes to the Local Fire Service. Trading Standards Officers are employed to uphold many different aspects of consumer and business related law, from product safety including toys, petrol stations, illegal trading, investigating consumer complaints and to undertake inspections of businesses to ensure they are being compliant with legislation. On the other hand, licenses for over 2000 kg explosives are issued by the Explosives Inspectorate (XI) of HSE. These people are experts in their field and will follow many procedures prior to the issue of the licence signed by Her Majesties Chief Inspector of Explosives. Whereas a licence issued by the Local Authority may take anything from a month down to a week to be issued, a licence issued by HSE may take six to twelve months or more to be issued.

Commercially this is not a good timescale. Having to wait for such a long time for a licence to be granted is not the best way to start up or develop a business. It can be made worse by government budget cuts, which may restrict the ability of HSE to issue licenses quickly, or serious investigations, where resources are redeployed from licensing responsibilities to assist the more urgent situation. The 2000 kg limit is per site. Site has a strict definition with ER2014: “site” means the whole area under the control of the same person and, for these purposes - (a) all places adjoining each other under the control of the same person are to be treated as a whole area; and (b) two or more areas under the control of the same person. separated only by a road, railway or inland waterway are to be treated as a whole area.

This definition of ‘site’ has led to some innovative licensing applications, particularly to try to benefit from the 2000 kg limit and to try to stay with a Local Authority licence. It has been known for licenses to be applied for by a number of separate companies owned by the same individual - the term ‘person’ being considered to be a ‘separate legal entity’ rather than the literal meaning. Being clever does not always mean your application will be accepted.

Under ER2014 the initial process for applying for an explosives licence in the UK whether above or below 2000 kg is very similar. The applicant must complete a form detailing their proposals and must supply a number of plans identifying a storage site and the places within it where the explosives will be stored. HSE licences normally require a detailed plan at a scale of 1:1250 and a wider area plan at a scale of 1:2500 that extends outwards from the site perimeter for a distance of at least the greatest separation distance required.

The Regulations contain tables of separation distances and compliance with these tables is mandatory, although HSE does have the discretion to vary separation distances (normally reduce them) if a technical argument can be made that demonstrates that the same level of safety exists as would exist with the normal separation distances.

There are fifteen tables of separation distances contained within a Schedule to the Regulations. In the UK there is a broad correlation between hazard division and what we call the hazard type. Although definitions are slightly different, Table 1 shows the correlation:

The separation distances appear in tables which specify the distance that a particular mass of explosives in a store must be from various features, which are broken down into Classes. The features are very detailed in the regulations, but broadly speaking, these are shown in Table 2.

Table 3 - Hazard Type 3 Explosives Separation Distances, UK Explosives Regulations 20144.

Hazard Type 3 and Hazard Type 4 explosives principally can be stored in any secure building that will offer suitable protection to the explosives contained within. Guidance on the suitability of buildings is contained within the overarching guidance. Hazard Type 3 and 4 explosives do not require any mounding and simply require the application of the relevant separation distances, and as such have only one table of separation distances each. Part of the table for Hazard Type 3, Table 10 of ER2014, explosives is reproduced as Table 3. Hazard Type 1 and 2 explosives on the other hand have different separation tables depending on whether or not the magazines are mounded, and for Hazard Type 1, whether the building is considered to be brick built or whether it is metal built. For Hazard Type 2, the tables differentiate between explosives where every item is 0.7 kg or less, or where they are more than 0.7 kg. Reduced separation distances are permitted for explosives of Hazard Type 1 (eg: 1.1G fireworks), where the store is located in an area of low population density. These are only permitted for limited masses of explosives, and the term low population density is tightly defined and relates to the number of dwellings in a specific reference zone. In the United Kingdom, fireworks are typically stored in one of three types of building. The first, and very common type of building is a former armed forces/defence store usually on a disused former military base or military explosives manufacturing site (Figure 1). These buildings are usually in tact, and generally in similar condition and offering a similar level of protection to when they were originally commissioned for service. They will frequently have substantial steel doors, earth mounding and will be laid out in rows on large sites. They offered a degree of protection originally for much more serious explosives than the fireworks they now store. Figure 1 - Former military stores in the UK now storing fireworks

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Table 1. Explosive Hazard Division and Explosive Hazard Type

Table 2. Separation Distance Classes

The second type of building are those which are built by a licence holder specifically for the storage of fireworks. These may be brick built or steel-framed, such as a farm building. Domestic legislation places requirements for exits and the maximum distances that an occupant must be from an exit at any position within a building. Provided that appropriate exits are present, that a building is secure and all separation distances are complied with, there really is no limit on the size of an explosive storage building. For example it would not be unreasonable to a have a very large 50 m x 30 m building licensed for the storage of 150 tonnes of Hazard Type 4 (1.4G) fireworks.

Figure 2 - A style of building that may be erected by a licence holder for the storage of fireworks.

The final type of building commonly found in the UK is the proprietary steel store, or in other words an ISO container, like the shipping container that fireworks may arrive in from China (Figure 3). In the most basic form, large shops such as supermarkets use these to store quantities up to 2000 kg (dependent on separation distance available) in their rear yards as a holding store for their retail sales inside. Stock will be brought from the holding store into the retail shop where it will be placed on display for customers to view. The quantity of explosive that may be brought onto the shop floor is contained within the subsector guidance and is proportionate to the floor space to which the public have access.

Figure 3- Proprietary steel store with earth bonding and alarm system.

However, proprietary steel stores (or containers) are also widely used for bulk storage and by professional firework display operators. For use in these situations, they need to have suitable security (most will have a very heavy duty lock protected by an after- factory added steel shroud), and they need to be earthed in two corners such that the path to earth from any part of the container is less than 10 ohms. They will also usually have a form of insulation such as wooden lining inside, or alternatively the product may be stacked at least 150 mm away from the interior steel walls. In practice, the use of steel stores is appropriate for the short to mid- term storage of products, but without humidity controls inside the building the lifespan of an article contained within may be shortened compared to storage in a brick building.

Another specific area of relevance to the professional display industry is an exemption from the requirements to hold a manufacturing licence for the preparation, assembly and fusing of fireworks in quantities of no more than 10 kg at a time, providing the activity occurs at a site in relation to which a person holds a licence for the storage of explosives, for the purposes of putting on a firework display by that person. To make this clearer we need to consider that explosives licenses cover storage and manufacturing. In the UK, if you require a manufacturing licence it must be issued by HSE, but if you wish to store less than 2000 kg then you can apply to your local authority. Fusing is normally considered to be a manufacturing activity, but with the fusing exemption a holder of a local authority licence can undertake fusing in small quantities without the need to have a manufacturing licence. This is a slightly contentious issue because some larger firework display operators feel that smaller companies have an easy time with the fusing exemption, they can fuse very easily without the need for a specialist facility. Other display operators are quite content with the arrangements. The preparation, assembly, disassembly and fusing of firework displays at the place of intended use, or in other words the firing site, is also exempt from the requirement to hold a manufacturing licence. Firework displays do not require licenses.

ER2014 places all of the expected requirements on duty-holders, and in particular Regulation 26 places a duty on any person who manufactures or stores explosives to prevent fire or explosion, limit the extent of fire or explosion including measures to prevent the spreading of fire from one location to another, and in the event that there is a fire or explosion, to take measures to protect people from the effects. They also contain extensive security provisions, with a 60 plus page guidance document specifically on security. The Regulations include new provisions to make it easier to withdraw licences and introduces the concept of a prohibited person, which includes many convicted offenders, a person who is not permitted to be employed in a position where they handle or control or acquire or store certain explosives. The Regulations also contain provisions relevant to some new European product safety regulations.

Whilst regulations in the UK have changed over the years, particularly over the last 15 years, essentially if you complied with one set of regulations (eg Explosives Act 1875), you most likely still complied with it today under ER2014. Although procedures have changed and some separation distances have been varied a little, the basic concepts of explosives storage have remained consistent.

Transport

Explosives transport in the UK falls under the general dangerous goods by road transport regulations. The UK has two pieces of legislation that the fireworks community must follow.

ADR

ADR is a pan-European treaty currently signed by 51 countries across the European area that provides for the straightforward movement of dangerous goods across borders by road. ADR is updated every two years and is translated into a range of languages. It is applied by all 51 countries and essentially means that if a product can be legally transported by road in one country, then it should be compliant in any other signatory country and can be moved by the same vehicle, using the same paperwork, packaging, labelling and crew training amongst many other attributes. It contains provisions for the classification of dangerous goods.

The ADR treaty was agreed in Geneva in 1957 under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Notably, this is not a Directive issued by the European Commission to European Union members, this is document signed by many countries that are not part of the EU, including Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and the Russian Federation.

ADR contains many provisions including a full dangerous goods list sorted by UN number, details on packaging and tanks, consignment procedures, labelling, marking of containers and vehicles, construction and testing of packaging, conditions of carriage, loading, unloading and handling, training of crews, equipment and construction and approval of vehicles.

ADR also contains thresholds on dangerous goods, so that the transport by road of small quantities are exempt from most of the provisions. Details of this are contained within section 1.1.3.6 of ADR, and for fireworks the transport of up to 20 kg of Class 1.1G or 1.3G fireworks, or up to 333 kg of Class 1.4G fireworks is exempt from most provisions.

UK Regulations

The UK has its own domestic regulations called The Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations5 (CDG). First released in 2009 and supplemented by various amendments over the years, the UK regulations require that carriage is in accordance with ADR.

However, they also amend ADR in a few select places, including areas that affect fireworks, and in addition they add measures that are not contained at all within ADR. These variations of course are only valid whilst the activity is being undertaken within the United Kingdom.

The UK Regulations amend ADR in many ways. One example is the placarding of vehicles. ADR uses the concept of hazard identification numbers for dangerous goods, a number which is used to identify the hazards associated with some goods transported by road. In the UK though, where a Hazard Identification Number would be required to be displayed on an orange plate (for example on a fuel tanker), this is replaced by the UK’s own Emergency Action Code, a code which indicates appropriate measures to be taken by firefighters.

UK Regulations also state that the provisions of ADR do not really apply to private individuals transporting fireworks with up to 50 kilograms net mass of explosives.

One very important provision within the UK regulations that applies to fireworks is that CDG adds a few additional words to ADR sections 2.2.1.1.2 to 2.2.1.1.4 which relate to the classification of fireworks. ADR as it stands simply requires that substances and articles of Class 1 shall be assigned to a hazard division in accordance with tests or by analogy in accordance with the default fireworks classification table contained within ADR part 2.2.1.1.7.5. In the UK, CDG amends the requirement so that the assignment of classification must be undertaken by the competent authority of a Contracting Party. In practice, for fireworks, this means that every firework in the United Kingdom must have a signed classification document indicating the approval of a competent authority from one of the 51 contracting nations. A large number of British importers from China will obtain this document from the Health and Safety Executive, the UK competent authority, but it is not unheard of for a UK importer to obtain an approval from the competent authority of another contracting country, and indeed, some professional display operators will use products that are manufactured in Spain, Italy and other European nations and these products will come with documents obtained by that manufacturer. UK importers must be careful, because not all European partners in ADR require competent authority approval, so it is also not unheard of for reference numbers for products to be supplied by other European parties, but that those numbers are more related to CE than to ADR and they don’t represent competent authority approval.

Table 4 - Summary of UK Carriage of Dangerous Good Approved Derogations

Table 5 - Multilateral agreements between contracting parties to ADR affecting UK fireworks.

The UK CDG regulations also permit a number of derogations from the requirements of the transport regulations. Some of the derogations can be seen by some people outside of the UK to be quite relaxed or lenient. Some of the derogations in current force relevant to fireworks are listed in Table 4.

Her Majesties Chief Inspector of Explosives may also issue Authorisations under the UK CDG regulations that permit an activity that is not normally permitted. This might be transport of unclassified fireworks from one location to another, perhaps for disposal, but for the fireworks we have one authorisation in particular, Authorisation 307 which permits the transport of fireworks lancework on wooden frames without the need for any packaging. In addition bilateral and multilateral agreements exist between contracting parties to ADR, and the principal one relevant to fireworks in the United Kingdom is that listed in Table 5.

Product safety standards and Brexit

At the time of writing (January 2019), the outcome of the Brexit negotiations and UK parliamentary votes is not known. As such this section will be kept relatively brief and will explain the situation as it was and as it is today.

Back in the 1980s, following an ever-increasing number of horrific accidents involving consumer fireworks, the government acted, with the British consumer fireworks industry, to introduce a safety standard that would apply to all fireworks that were intended for domestic use. This standard, a ‘British Standard’ with number BS7114:2:88 divided fireworks into four separate categories and placed performance criteria on product in each. The usual criteria for things like fallout range, fuse duration, and sparkler performance were part of the standard.

Category 1 fireworks were essentially indoor products - small sparklers, indoor fireworks, Christmas cracker snaps, party poppers, toy gun caps and so on, and this was the lowest category with, in theory, the lowest risk associated with it. The fireworks were intended for use in extremely restricted areas.

Category 2 fireworks were termed as ‘garden fireworks’ that were suitable for viewing from a safety distance of 5 m, and must scatter no debris beyond a 3-m range.

Category 3 fireworks were termed as ‘display fireworks’ and were suitable for viewing at a safety distance of 25 m, and must scatter no debris beyond a 20-m range. Category 4 fireworks were essentially ‘professional fireworks’ and were for sale only for use by firework professionals, for example in the provision of professional firework displays.

Category 4 fireworks had no restrictions and consequently was also the default category for any fireworks that had not yet been tested to demonstrate compliance with Category 1, 2 or 3.

It was a legal requirement that fireworks sold to the public complied with Categories 1, 2 or 3 and the duty fell on the shoulders of the importer to ensure that they did indeed comply. There was no formal Notified Body arrangement or formal conformity assessment regime, but nonetheless BS7114 did require testing by importers who maintained records. Enforcement was undertaken by Local Authorities who would seize samples of goods at the ports and retail outlets and test them, and take action if found to be faulty.

Category 4 fireworks could be pretty much any professional style of firework without restrictions, but they could legally only be supplied to professionals, with onus placed on the supplier to determine that a customer was a professional and had the appropriate storage, insurance, etc. Although unrestricted, by nature of them being a professional fireworks, they were used in the workplace and were consequently covered by other domestic legislation including the Health and Safety at Work Act and associated regulations. It would be completely unfair to say that there was no control, in fact there were very high standards in the UK relating to professional firework displays and accident levels have not changed or improved with the introduction of CE - they remain at a very low level.

The year 2010 saw the introduction of the Pyrotechnic Articles Safety Regulations which implemented a European Pyrotechnic Articles Directive. The Directive required that all Pyrotechnic Articles made available on the market must comply with harmonised standards and essential safety requirements, and required that fireworks must be categorised into new European categories of F1,F2, F3 and F4. ( These will not be explained in full in this paper because they have been the discussion of many papers at previous International Symposium on Fireworks.}

What they did do is require the UK to move its products from the British Standard over to the new European Standard, with the new European CE mark being printed on all products. They also introduced the new requirement that professional fireworks (those of Category F4), that were placed upon the market, now needed to undergo conformity assessment procedures where they had not previously.

There is no doubt that CE has placed an additional cost burden on UK importers that did not exist under the old British Standard, and it is the view of many, including this paper’s author that it has not lead to demonstrable safety improvements within the UK, because the previous standard system and legal provisions in the UK were already fit for purpose, and accident levels in domestic fireworks were very low and professional fireworks extremely low.

The Directive and introduction of CE-marking, etc. is a very good system and it has undoubtedly increased standards right across Europe, and introduced standards in countries where there previously were none. In the UK though, apart from some professional firework display companies that do business in Europe, the general view does seem to be that it is hard to find the new benefits that CE has brought that did not already exist under the old British regime.

In the future, if the UK leaves the European Union, depending on the trading arrangements we may continue to follow European procedures and continue with CE marking and the CEN standards. However, at the other end of the scale, if we were to revert to domestic arrangements then it may be that goods used only in the UK follow a UK national standard again, with or without the involvement of a Notified Body or National Body. The UK would be unlikely to return to the British Standard, but we could feasibly return to a standards system that followed similar principles.

Other regulations

It is impossible to touch on all regulations in a short paper like this. There are many other regulations in the UK that cover the UK fireworks industry, including a prohibition on certain consumer firework types such as bangers, air bombs, fireworks with erratic flight, certain types of small rocket, amongst others, and we also have laws that control when fireworks may be fired off. Domestic fireworks can be used all year round up until 11 pm, but on certain dates of the year including Guy Fawkes, New Years Eve, Diwali, and Chinese New Year, this curfew is extended.

Domestic legislation also prescribes when consumer firework may be sold to the public. For most retail outlets, sale is limited to the period between 15th October and 10th November, and between 26th December and 31st December, and for a few days before and after Diwali and Chinese New Year. However, it is possible to pay the sum of 500 British pounds to obtain a licence that permits the sale of consumer fireworks all year round. There were understood to be approximately 230 of these licences in existence in the UK in late 2018, whereas there are thousands of retail outlets that sell fireworks during the restricted periods.

Disclaimer

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information contained within this paper, this is a discussion document only and should not be relied upon for any matter of legal compliance relating to the laws discussed. The author makes no representations or warranties of any kind about the completeness, accuracy, reliability or suitability of the information contained in this document. Any reliance you place on the information contained herein is strictly at your own risk.

References

1. United Kingdom Legislation, The Explosives Act 1875 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/38-39/17/contents Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk /doc/open- government-licence/version/3/

2.. United Kingdom Legislation, Explanatory Memorandum to the Manufacture and Storage of Explosives Regulations 2005 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1082/memorandum/content s Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 http://www.nationalarchives. gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

3. Löfstedt, R., Reclaiming health and safety for all: An independent review of health and safety legislation, 2011 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/u ploads/attachment_data/file/66790/lofstedt-report.pdf

4. United Kingdom Legislation, The Explosives Regulations 2014 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1638/contents/made Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ doc/open- government-licence/version/3/

5. United Kingdom Legislation, The Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2009 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/1348/ contents/made Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open- government-licence/version/3/

6. British Firework Championships website, Previous Winners, http://www.britishfireworks.co.uk/index.php/the-british-firework- championships/previous-winners [Accessed: 10 January 2019]

Andy Hubble is Director of Star Fireworks Ltd, UK Further information: andy@starfireworks.co.uk www.starfireworks.co.uk Star Fireworks – winner of The British Fireworks Championships “Champion of Champions”.