§ Mr. Parryasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he has any plans to allow chief constables to use plastic bullets without his prior notification or approval, and if he will make a statement;
(2) if he will list in the Official Report the chief constables who have applied for permission to use plastic bullets.
§ Mr. Giles ShawThe Government made plastic baton rounds available to police forces in Great Britain following the riots in 1981. In reply to a question by the hon. Member for Islington, North (Mr. Corbyn) on 19 November at columns 140–41, I listed those forces in England and Wales understood to hold baton rounds.
As was made clear by the then Home Secretary on 19 October 1981 at columns 29–30, plastic baton rounds are to be used only as a last resort where conventional methods of policing have been tried and failed, or must from the nature of the circumstances obtaining be unlikely to succeed if tried, and where the chief officer judges such action to be necessary because of the risk of loss of life or serious injury or widespread destruction of property. They may be used only with the express authority of the chief officer of police (or, in his absence, his deputy). This is an operational matter for the chief officer of police, and my right hon. Friend's prior notification or approval is not required.