Chamber and committees

Would Julie Whitelaw like to comment?

Thank you.

I have a question that I meant to ask earlier about licensing. The initial proposal was that a licence would be valid for 12 months, but the intention now is that it could be valid for five years, unless it was revoked. What are your views on that, given that five years is a long time during which lots of things can happen, such as someone getting a criminal record? I ask Chief Inspector Robison to respond first, please, followed by David MacKenzie and Julie Whitelaw.

Does David MacKenzie have a view?

I have just a brief question. It just occurred to me that in my area a pop-up fireworks shop appears every year around October and disappears after 5 November. How would that kind of thing be affected? In terms of when people can buy fireworks, would temporary units that pop up then disappear still be viable? That is for David MacKenzie.

That is interesting.

Who will decide on firework control zones? Will that be done by the local authority, guided by the local communities? Are the provisions on control zones realistic and workable?

Good morning. You have just given us some alarming evidence about the consequences of fireworks on the police and fire services. Would you prefer there to be an outright ban on fireworks? If not, why not? Could you say something about the issues around that?

Is there not a danger that control zones might move the problem elsewhere? If people in a certain community are in a zone where they cannot use fireworks, would they just go somewhere else? That is a hypothetical question.

I will move on to David Hamilton. You should feel free to answer those questions, but I have a specific question for you.

Do you have any concerns about how the proposed licensing scheme will be policed? Will it create a big challenge for you? Have you had discussions with the Scottish Government about the bill? I am not sure whether the onus will fall on local authorities or the police, but I guess that dealing with someone who does not have a licence would fall to the police.