§ Mr. Pounderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether he will make a further statement about the security situation in Northern Ireland.
§ Mr. Peter MillsI would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given by my hon. Friend the Minister of State for Defence on 25th January to Questions from the hon. Members for Sheffield, Attercliffe, (Mr. Duffy), Loughborough (Mr. Cronin), Beckenham (Mr. Goodhart) and Chigwell (Mr. Biggs-Davison).
Between 24th January and 30th January there were 10 explosions and 245 shooting incidents in Northern Ireland. One hundred and thirty eight of the shooting incidents took place in Belfast on 28th January in an obviously planned but unsuccessful effort to kill British troops on the anniversary of so-called "Bloody Sunday". That day apart, there has 416W been a fall in the number of shooting incidents in each of the past six weeks. The number of bombing incidents has averaged about 11 a week during the same period. The majority of security incidents continue to be in Belfast. Londonderry and the border areas have been relatively quiet, but there have been serious incidents in Portadown and Lurgan, and in some rural areas.—[Vol. 849, c. 619–22.]