§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many new gun licences have been issued in England and Wales since 1 January. [40113]
§ Miss WiddecombeStatistics on firearm and shotgun licences are collected centrally only on an annual basis. Statistics for 1996 will be published in the spring of 1997.
Sir Michael SheresbyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many deaths occurred as the result of shooting in which unregistered and illegally held firearms was used during each of the past 10 years; [40322]
(2) in how many cases during the past 10 years police officers in England and Wales have been killed by a registered firearm used (a) by the licence holder and (b) by a third party; [40320]
(3) how many deaths have occurred in each of the past 10 years as a result of gunshot wounds in which a registered firearm was used (a) by the holder of the firearms licence and (b) by an unauthorised third party; [40319]
(4) in how many cases during the past 10 years police officers in England and Wales have been killed by an unregistered and illegally held firearm. [40321]
§ Miss WiddecombeInformation as to whether firearms used in offences of homicide are legally held is not at present routinely collected centrally.
However, a special exercise has been recently carried out to find out whether the guns used in homicide were licensed or not.
This covered the years 1992 to 1994, and out of a total of 196 homicides, information was available in 152 cases to show that 22 cases—14 per cent.—involved the use of a legally held firearm. In 5 per cent. of homicides in which the weapons were not legally held by a suspect, the weapons were believed to have been stolen—seven out of 130. For 88 of these offences, however, the police reported that they did not know whether the firearm had been stolen or not.
During the period of the survey, one police officer and one special constable were shot and killed, the firearms being illegally held.
§ Mr. Barry JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many notifiable offences were recorded by the police in which firearms were reported to have been used in Wales in 1995. [40052]
§ Miss WiddecombeThe information requested is not yet available for 1995, but is due for publication in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales 1995" on 7 November.