§ Mr. Kimballasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT figures showing the number of indictable offences involving firearms for 1969.
§ Mr. MaudlingThe number of indictable offences involving firearms known to the police in England and Wales in 1969 was 3,298 (as compared with 2,503 in 1968). In 1,308 of these offences a firearm was fired or presented, in 109 a firearm was carried but not used and in the remaining 1,881 a firearm was involved only by being misappropriated. The corresponding figures for 1968 were 878, 83 and 1,542. The increase in the number of offences in which a firearm was fired or presented is mainly due to a marked rise in the offences involving air guns. It is thought that improved reporting partly accounts for the increase in the figures.