Tougher fireworks law by end July

The government yesterday announced it will be moving a Bill in Parliament to introduce substantially tougher penalties for the illegal manufacture and storage of fireworks as a first step towards a zero tolerance approach which Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici is pledging to adopt.

"The Bill shows we are starting to move from words to facts and we're sending a clear message to the people involved in the fireworks industry that illegal practices will not be tolerated," Dr Mifsud Bonnici said as he passed on copies of the details to the media.

The Bill will mark a radical break with the 1937 Explosives Ordnance that regulates the industry and which has seen little change since being enacted despite the fact that the industry and fireworks manufacturing techniques have evolved beyond compare since the 1930s.

The penalty for the unlicensed manufacture of fireworks, for instance, will go up from a petty fine of between €76 and €465 and a maximum six months' imprisonment to a fine ranging from €2,500 to €25,000 and imprisonment ranging from two to five years.

The minister acknowledged this was only a first step. "I hope to be in a position to announce the setting up of an inspectorate," he said in reference to the long-promised inspection team for fireworks factories, which was proposed to the government in 2004 but which never got off the ground.

The amendments are expected to be discussed in Parliament in about two weeks' time and possibly be enacted before the end of July.

The reform comes in the wake of the recent tragedy in Naxxar, where illegally-stored fireworks exploded in a residential area killing two people and destroying three homes.

In fact, as a result of that incident, one of the amendments stipulates that anyone caught storing or making fireworks in an unlicensed place will face fines of between €15,000 and €50,000 and imprisonment of six months to two years. The current fine ranges between €46 and €465.

More significantly, storing or producing fireworks in an unlicensed place will become an aggravating factor in a case of manslaughter or homicide.

Other significant changes include the barring of probation in cases involving fireworks offences while the court will be empowered to order people found guilty of fireworks offences to pay compensation to potential victims even while criminal proceedings are underway.

The Police Commissioner will be granted the right to shut down a fireworks factory on suspicion of wrongdoing, even before legal proceedings are initiated in court. The courts will then be able to impose interim measures.

The Bill provides for courts to be able to reduce the sentence of informants who are involved in the illegal production of fireworks and who help the police in securing an investigation.