Department for Business and Trade written question – answered at on 13 November 2023.
Alexander Stafford
Conservative, Rother Valley
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has taken steps with Cabinet colleagues to make an assessment of the potential impact of the public (a) sale and (b) use of fireworks on levels of assaults on (i) police officers, (ii) ambulance staff, (iii) firefighters and (iv) members of the public.
Kevin Hollinrake
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has not undertaken an assessment of the potential impact of the public sale and use of fireworks on levels of assaults on the emergency services or members of the public.
Any assault on a member of the public using fireworks is a police matter. In addition, any attack on the emergency services – including any those involve fireworks – can be dealt with by the police using powers in the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018.
Yes30 people think so
No8 people think not
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
