§ Mr. GallowayTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many people have been sentenced to(a) community service orders and (b) custody in Scotland after having been convicted of stabbing offences involving (i) severe injury, (ii) permanent disfigurement and (iii) disfigurement and danger to life in the current year and in each of the previous four years. [8778]
§ Mr. McLeishInformation collected centrally on assaults resulting in conviction does not indicate whether these involved stabbing. The following table sets out the available information for 1995 (the most recent year) and each of the previous four years.
The numbers of baton rounds held by the Army must be sufficient to cover both training and operational requirements, as well as the maintenance of an adequate reserve. It is not, however, possible to say how the rounds issued in 1994 would have lasted at 1993 rates of usage because records of training usage for that year are no longer available.
Details of RUC usage and operational requirements are matters for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.