§ Kate HoeyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has collated on the types of firearms used for criminal purposes since 1997. [47446]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthCriminals in the United Kingdom use a range of different firearms obtained from a variety of different sources. The information collected centrally at present relates only to broad categories of weapons and is given in the table.
As part of our efforts to crack down on misuse, we are currently funding a new National Firearms Forensic Intelligence Database which is expected to be operational in 2003. As well as helping to track the provenance of guns which have been recovered and to identify any 1070W which have been previously used, it will also help to provide a much more detailed assessment of the types of weapons used.
Recorded crimes in which firearms were reported to have been used by principal weapon: England and Wales Number of offences Principal weapon 1997 1998–991 1999–20001 2000–011 Long-barrelled shotgun 313 322 353 302 Sawn-off shotgun 267 320 340 305 Handgun 2,648 2,687 3,685 4,019 Rifle 51 43 67 36 Imitation firearm 511 566 823 773 Unidentified firearm 713 665 762 953 Other firearm 401 606 813 974 Air weapon 7,506 8,665 10,103 10,227 Total 12,410 13,874 16,946 17,589 1Year ending March.