§ Mr. WigginTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of people who will be affected by changes to the licensing on shotgun ownership; what assessment he has made of the effect of the proposed changes on the number of crimes committed; how many crimes were committed with licensed shotguns in the last year for which figures are available; and what estimate he has made of the cost of implementation of the new arrangements. [185203]
§ Caroline FlintThe Government have made no specific proposals for changes to the arrangements for licensing shotgun owners. Our consultation paper on firearms control seeks views by 31 August on a range of issues concerning the use and possession of firearms. We will consider all responses carefully before deciding what needs to be done, if anything, to improve existing controls. There were 561,762 shot gun certificates on 615W issue at the end of March 2003. Shot guns were used to commit 671 recorded crimes in 2002–03; it is not known how many of these were legally held.