Consumer-firework noise
Lower the maximum for consumer F1, F2 and F3 fireworks from 120 to 110 dB (A,imp), while also seeking evidence about 100 and 90 dB options.
Open UK Government consultation
UK fireworks consultation 2026
Review the official proposals and questions, source material, and Firework Pet Alert’s separately labelled position. The consultation closes on Wednesday 7 October 2026.
Consultation deadline
7 October 2026
Firework Pet Alert is independent and is not speaking for the UK Government. The official consultation page is the authoritative source for its status and material.
Status checked 17 August 2026
The consultation has not been rewritten and no new law has been enacted
The official closing date remains 11:59pm on Wednesday 7 October 2026. Question 3 has not been withdrawn or rewritten, and no final consumer-noise threshold has been selected. Claims that an immediate or complete firework ban has already been announced are inaccurate.
This is a verified status summary, not Firework Pet Alert’s policy view. Current status should always be checked against the official consultation.
The consultation at a glance
What is proposed
Product restrictions
Add F2 or F3 products judged to carry unacceptable safety or security risks to the regulation 33 banned list, and clarify the restriction concerning multiple-shot-tube fireworks.
Lower-risk products
Review F1 and P1 rules, including removing the purchase age restriction for Christmas crackers and considering whether other products need stronger or lighter requirements.
Professional displays: the government intends professional public displays to retain access to loud effects, saying these events are publicised and less likely to happen illegally or at unsociable hours.
Keep the scope clear
What is not proposed
- A complete ban on public purchase or use of all consumer fireworks.
- A national system for notifying residents about planned fireworks.
- A requirement in these proposals for every private or professional display to register with Firework Pet Alert or another notification service.
- Immediate legal change: responses must first be analysed and any changes require parliamentary approval.
These points describe the scope of the current consultation. The notification proposal on this page is Firework Pet Alert’s own organisational position.
Understanding the options
120, 110, 100 and 90 dB explained
The consultation uses dB (A,imp): A-weighted sound pressure measured with impulse timing at the safety distance for the firework category. Decibels use a logarithmic scale, so a 10 dB change is not a ten-percent change.
The option to keep the present limit.
The government’s preferred proposal; estimated to affect around one-third of current consumer products.
An alternative on which the government is seeking evidence.
The lowest alternative presented in question 6.
These are the consultation’s approximate perceived-loudness comparisons, not claims that every product reaches its legal maximum or sounds identical in every setting. Distance, surroundings, weather and whether a sound is expected all affect experience.
A point needing clarification
What Question 3 asks
The official question asks whether regulation 33(1)(g) should be amended to make explicit that a firework comprising more than one shot tube is banned from sale to the general public.
Why the wording matters: current government product guidance already says the prohibition on a single shot tube extends to a battery or combination containing more than one shot tube. Firework Pet Alert has not found enough detail in the consultation to determine precisely which additional products the proposed amendment is intended to capture or what evidence supports that boundary.
Firework Pet Alert’s position: FPA cannot support Question 3 as presently drafted. Government should first publish precise product definitions, the intended construction and conformity classifications, the products affected and the evidence of risk. This is FPA’s organisational conclusion, not a suggested answer for respondents.
This explanation does not suggest an answer. The official consultation and the government’s current product-safety guidance are the source documents.
Official question list
All ten consultation questions
The official form allows respondents to answer any or all of these questions.
- Are there any other particular F2 and F3 fireworks products that you think the general public should not be allowed to buy? Please state which products and give your reasons.
- If more products are added to the regulation 33 banned list, what consequences might there be for consumers, industry, enforcement authorities, professional users, and others? Please give your reasons.
- Do you agree that regulation 33(1)(g) should be amended to make explicit that a firework comprising more than one shot tube is banned from sale to the general public? Choose agree, disagree, or neither agree nor disagree, and give your reasons.
- Do you agree that the age limit for purchasing Christmas crackers should be removed? Choose agree, disagree, or neither agree nor disagree, and give your reasons.
- Are there any other specific F1 and P1 pyrotechnics that should have their regulatory requirements increased or decreased? Please state which products, what regulatory requirements you think they should have and give your reasons.
- Do you agree the decibel level of fireworks consumers use should be lowered? Choose one: keep 120 dB (A,imp); lower it to 110 dB (A,imp); lower it to 100 dB (A,imp); lower it to 90 dB (A,imp); or don’t know.
- What might be the positive impacts of reducing the maximum decibel level of fireworks available to the general public? Please explain your answer, providing evidence where possible.
- What might be the negative impacts of reducing the maximum decibel level of fireworks available to the general public? Please explain your answer, providing evidence where possible.
- How much lead in time would businesses need to prepare for the changes proposed in this consultation and why? Please state a lead in time in months or years, and explain your answer, providing evidence where possible.
- What other things should we consider when setting a lead in time? You may wish to reference the impact on people who buy fireworks, enforcement bodies, police or the general public.
Firework Pet Alert does not suggest answers or provide a response template. Whether and how to respond is for each reader to decide; the government form is the official submission route.
Official consultation audiences
Who can respond
Individuals
The government invites responses from any interested person, including consumers and people working with vulnerable or under-represented groups.
Businesses and organisers
The listed audiences include retailers, importers, professional pyrotechnics businesses, and community or voluntary display organisers.
Organisations and public bodies
The listed audiences include animal-welfare and veterans’ organisations, healthcare, emergency services, councils, Trading Standards and regulators.
This is a shortened audience summary. See the official consultation for the complete list and response instructions.
Stakeholder and news tracker
What has happened so far
Government consultation opens
DBT publishes ten questions covering product restrictions, lower-risk products, noise and transition periods.
Official consultationInitial stakeholder reactions published
The government announcement records responses from Combat Stress, Dogs Trust and Redwings Horse Sanctuary, including the importance of preparation and responsible celebrations.
Government announcementFirework Pet Alert consultation hub and evidence survey
Firework Pet Alert publishes a neutral guide and begins gathering structured evidence about unpredictability, advance notice and willingness to notify.
Read Firework Pet Alert’s positionRedwings publishes its consultation response information
Redwings Horse Sanctuary welcomes the consultation and publishes its own explanation and considerations for respondents.
Redwings statementBritish Fireworks Association updates its position
The consumer-fireworks trade body publishes its concerns about further restrictions, calls for proportionate evidence-led regulation and stronger enforcement, and links to its Safer Fireworks response resource.
BFA positionLast reviewed 17 August 2026. Entries link to the organisation’s own published material. Inclusion records a relevant public development; it does not imply endorsement by or of Firework Pet Alert.
Our organisational position
Reduce avoidable distress and follow the evidence
This section states Firework Pet Alert’s organisational view only. It is not a suggested consultation answer. Readers may agree, disagree or take a different view.
FPA is not neutral about animal welfare. Its objective is to reduce avoidable firework-related distress. FPA is evidence-led and impartial about which regulatory and practical interventions will achieve that most effectively and proportionately.
FPA does not take a predetermined position for or against lowering the statutory maximum noise level. The evidence currently available does not establish that 90, 100 or 110 dB (A,imp) represents the most effective and proportionate threshold for improving animal welfare. Proposed noise limits should be assessed alongside UK-wide advance notification, predictable display times, improved planning and coordination, public information, product standards and effective enforcement.
- Consumer noise: FPA supports the combination of measures that reliable evidence demonstrates will produce meaningful welfare improvements. It will neither assume that the lowest numerical limit must be the best policy nor rule out a reduction if reliable evidence supports it.
- Question 3: FPA cannot support the proposal as presently drafted. Products shown by evidence to create unacceptable risk should be restricted, but the law must identify those products precisely rather than rely on an ambiguous description of “more than one shot tube”.
- Enforcement: FPA supports effective action against illegal sale, misuse and antisocial behaviour alongside any proportionate regulatory change.
- Professional and community displays: FPA supports a consistent UK-wide advance-notification framework as a normal requirement for planned professional, public and community displays.
- Private displays: FPA supports a free, strongly encouraged notification route initially, designed to make responsible notice easy without creating a public directory of household organisers.
- Changes and cancellations: notices must be kept current. FPA’s service queues prompt email and push updates to matched subscribers when an organiser changes the schedule or cancels through the dashboard.
- Privacy: public alerts should use approximate notification areas rather than publishing exact private addresses.
- Who is represented: evidence should include pets, horses, livestock and wildlife; carers and owners; veterans and people affected by PTSD, autism or sensory sensitivity; families, firework users, organisers, retailers, public services and communities.
Noise level and unpredictability are different potential causes of distress. Quieter fireworks may still be distressing when unexpected, while properly publicised displays are easier to prepare for. The consultation contains no proposal for a consistent UK-wide notification framework. FPA advocates such a framework and currently provides a practical notification service; any national arrangement should be open, interoperable and privacy-preserving rather than dependent on one provider.
What FPA is not: Firework Pet Alert is not a regulator, licensing body, fireworks trade association or campaign for a general prohibition. It does not issue permission, certify displays, represent a commercial sector or claim government endorsement. FPA is independent notification infrastructure that helps organisers give notice and nearby people prepare. Read the permanent Firework Pet Alert policy and the signed governance and conflicts declaration.
Help Firework Pet Alert build evidence
Structured advance-notice survey
This optional Firework Pet Alert survey records privacy-safe evidence about advance notice. It is separate from the government consultation and does not submit a response to government.
We do not ask for or store your name, email address, user account, IP address, postcode or precise location with this survey. Optional free text is encrypted at rest. Responses will be reviewed by 31 December 2027 and then deleted or irreversibly anonymised.
Official government form
The government’s response form is separate from Firework Pet Alert. Firework Pet Alert does not provide suggested answers.
Official response form