§ Mr. TouhigTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many(a) automatic, (b) semi-automatic and (c) single shot legally held firearms have been used in firearms incidents for each of the last 10 years; [5970]
456W(2) how many (a) automatic, (b) semi-automatic and (c) single shot illegally held firearms have been used in firearms incidents for each of the last 10 years. [5971]
Miss Widdecombe: The information requested is not available centrally.
457W
§ Mr. TouhigTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many legally held(a) .22 calibre handguns, (b) handguns below .22 calibre and (c) handguns above .22 calibre have been used in firearms incidents in each of the last 10 years. [5972]
(2) how many illegally held (a) .22 calibre handguns, (b) handguns below .22 calibre and (c) handguns above .22 calibre have been used in firearms incidents in each of the last 10 years. [5973]
§ Miss WiddecombeInformation as to whether or not firearms used in offences are legally held has not, in the past, been routinely collected centrally in England and Wales.
However, a special exercise has recently been conducted to find out whether the guns used in homicides were licensed or not.
This covered the years 1992 to 1994, and out of a total of 79 homicides involving the use of a handgun, information was available in 61 cases to show that six were legally held—all more than .22 calibre—and 55 illegally held by the suspect—information on the calibre of 49 of these weapons being available, showing that seven were of .22 calibre and 42 above .22 calibre.