§ Dr. KumarTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans there are to increase spending on the advertising and promotion of the firearms amnesty; how much has been allocated for the year April 2003 to March 2004; which the preferred medium is in which to promote the campaign; and on what basis he has reached this decision. [111256]
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Police force area 1997 1998–991 1999–20002 2000–012 2001–022 Avon and Somerset 240 241 429 365 411 Bedfordshire 56 149 177 140 182 Cambridgeshire 134 141 186 146 195 Cheshire 70 97 72 167 177 Cleveland 144 245 199 203 267 Cumbria 54 33 34 29 34 Derbyshire 280 322 451 398 461 Devon and Cornwall 94 144 140 111 138 Dorset 78 42 123 153 174 Durham 65 25 53 116 163 Essex 269 317 344 356 546 Gloucestershire 87 116 158 179 188 Greater Manchester 888 1,143 1,372 1,513 2,175 Hampshire 157 147 215 163 175 Hertfordshire 56 61 164 217 224 Humberside 535 563 543 502 473 Kent 364 277 340 335 269 Lancashire 163 179 227 233 343 Leicestershire 106 185 137 119 146 Lincolnshire 92 80 141 152 153 London, City of 4 15 6 5 Merseyside 576 856 914 1,041 1,211 Metropolitan Police 2,926 3,004 4,118 4,258 5,675 Norfolk 75 59 56 57 68 Northamptonshire 130 191 177 78 98 Northumbria 277 457 531 472 541 North Yorkshire 131 74 59 47 70 Nottinghamshire 532 629 713 693 870 South Yorkshire 328 401 369 448 737 Staffordshire 241 123 184 321 386 Suffolk 17 34 69 136 118 Surrey 59 66 92 129 107 Sussex 218 315 377 326 404 Thames Valley 325 471 555 609 703 Warwickshire 86 56 69 73 102 West Mercia 84 105 114 111 177 West Midlands 840 808 1,008 1,058 1,636 West Yorkshire 974 1,041 1,235 1,544 1,759 Wiltshire 61 85 84 79 98 Dyfed-Powys 61 60 45 68 43 Gwent 129 215 248 197 176 North Wales 109 94 104 74 99 South Wales 295 222 315 275 337 England total 11,816 13,283 16,234 17,083 21,659 1 There was a change of counting rules for recorded crime on 1 April 1998, which would have the tendency to increase the number of offences counted. Numbers of offences before and after this date are therefore not directly comparable.
2 Figures may have been inflated by some forces implementing the priciples of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) before 1 April 2002.
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthThe firearms amnesty ran from 31 March to 30 April 2003. It was agreed after the success of the first burst of advertising at the beginning of the amnesty to repeat the radio advertising in the last week and an additional £122,000 was spent in April 2003 to achieve this.
There are currently no plans to run another amnesty in the coming year and therefore no additional money has been allocated for advertising and promotion. Over 40,000 guns where handed in during the period.