Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 27 April 2022
I will endeavour to put the minds of colleagues in the Opposition parties at ease on the matter.
The Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Bill is extremely important to many of our constituents, as most of us will be aware. Every now and then, a bill comes along that deals with problems that constituents have, and the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Bill is one such bill. It is because it is an extremely important bill that we all agreed that the timetable should be as it is. We wanted to help the many constituents who have such problems and have to deal with the antisocial behaviour that happens through use of fireworks.
I am led to believe that all the members of the Criminal Justice Committee believe in the fundamentals of the bill at stage 1, and I do not think that anything has been said today that says otherwise. The crux of the matter will come when we move on to stage 2, when members of the Opposition parties will have an opportunity to contribute and to ensure that they get across their points. My whole idea was to ensure that we had plenty of time for stage 2 within the truncated timetable.