§ Mr. Thomas Coxasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish for each of the last three years the number of offences committed in the Metropolitan Police area in which a firearm was used.
§ Mr. CarlisleIn 1971, the latest year for which figures are available, 618 indictable offences in which firearms were fired, used as blunt instruments to cause injury or damage, or used to threaten, were known to the Metropolitan Police. The corresponding figures for 1970 and 1969 were 494 and 483 respectively.
Mr. Edward Taylorasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department 141W how many indictable offences involving the use of firearms were made known to the police in 1972.
§ Mr. CarlisleThe number of offences provisionally recorded as known to the police in England and Wales in 1972 in which firearms were fired, used as a blunt instrument to cause injury or damage or used as a threat is 2,069. This is a provisional figure; the final figure will not be available for several months, and in the meantime it is not possible to give any analysis or breakdown of the provisional total.