§ Mr. Richard Shepherdasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department 22W how many persons were convicted of crimes involving the use of firearms in the most recent annual period for which figures are available; and what were the comparable figures in each of the previous 10 years.
§ Mr. BrittanInformation in the form requested is not collected centrally. Information on the numbers of indictable offences recorded by the police in which firearms were reported to have been used and on numbers of persons found guilty of non-indictable offences under the Firearms Act 1968—where this was the principal offence—is published annually in "Criminal Statistics England and Wales"—tables 3.1 and 1(a) of the volume for 1977—Cmnd. 7289.