§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will list the number of occasions guns were issued to the police for each year since 1970; and if he will break the figures down to indicate the numbers issued to each police authority for each year in question;
(2) if he will list the number of guns issued to the police for each year since 1970; and if he will break the figures down to indicate the numbers issued to each police authority for each year in question.
§ Mr. WhitelawInformation on the number of occasions in England and Wales on which firearms were issued to the police in connection with an incident involving armed criminals is available only for 1970 to 1972 and from 1975 to 1979, and is as follows. Information on the number of guns issued is not available.
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Police Force Year 1970–72 1975–79* (if different) 1970 1971 1972 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 (to 31 October 1979) City of London … … — 26 56 28 64 108 77 141 165 Bedford and Luton … … Bedfordshire … 14 9 3 8 10 9 20 23 Birmingham City … … West Midlands … 9 38 15 223 209 449 215 226 West Midlands … … 0 1 1 Bradford City … … West Yorkshire … N.A. 4 3 40 122 94 75 73 West Yorkshire … … 7 43 47 Leeds City … … 12† 12† 12† Bristol City … … Avon and Somerset 23 19 19 N.A. 12 42 49 17 Somerset and Bath … … 3 3 2 Cheshire … … — 1 3 0 11 8 20 11 24 Cumbria … … — 0 1 1 0 0 4 2 1 Derby County and Borough … Derbyshire … 11 1 6 4 17 16 5 6 Devon and Cornwall … … — 18 50 18 22 157 278 143 106 Dorset and Bournemouth … Dorset … 0 0 2 14 16 30 9 19 Durham … … — 2 1 1 3 1 1 3 6 Dyfed-Powys … … — 0 1 2 0 0 5 2 2 Essex and Southend … … Essex … 11 19 85 25 32 45 48 44 Gloucestershire … … — 5 8 15 5 3 10 18 16 Gwent … … — 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 Gwynedd … … North Wales … 0 1 0 2 1 6 8 2 Hampshire … … — 9 11 10 143 124 92 100 35 Hertfordshire … … — 9 67 19 29 40 35 47 25 Kent … … — 13 11 10 58 83 73 116 61 Kingston-upon-Hull … … Humberside … 2 2 8 13 13 19 19 15 Lancashire … … — 4 36 15 121 34 47 49 19 Leicester and Rutland … Leicestershire … 3 3 31 4 2 12 24 15 104W105W
Police Force Year 1970–72 1975–79* (if different) 1970 1971 1972 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 (to 31 October 1979) Lincoln … … … … — 3 2 5 7 4 3 12 2 Liverpool and Bootle … … Merseyside … 38 71 43 52 70 70 101 48 Manchester and Salford … Greater Manchester 9 8 6 108 57 47 57 38 Metropolitan … … … — 803 1,344 1,712 3,174 4,940 3,933 5,835 4,288 Mid Anglia … … … Cambridgeshire … 0 1 0 1 3 0 4 7 Norfolk … … … — 1 2 1 1 3 5 19 17 Northampton … … … — 1 6 4 14 9 27 27 19 Northumberland … … Northumbria … 1 6 4 20 30 14 32 12 Nottinghamshire … … — 3 4 9 15 14 28 24 33 Sheffield and Rotherham … South Yorkshire … 4 1 2 26 22 21 35 18 South Wales … … … — 1 2 0 23 45 39 20 65 Staffordshire … … … — 2 10 5 8 7 36 18 18 Suffolk … … … … — 4 0 2 1 2 5 9 19 Surrey … … … … — 3 11 2 N.A. 12 12 23 15 Sussex … … … … — 3 17 13 N.A. 79 52 49 32 Teesside … … … Cleveland … … 0 1 2 4 2 0 15 4 Thames Valley … … … — 11 34 50 15 22 34 28 27 Warwickshire … … … — 1 6 18 13 6 8 13 11 West Mercia … … … — 0 3 0 265 24 16 13 17 Wiltshire … … … — 0 1 3 13 14 9 13 16 York and North East Yorkshire North Yorkshire … 1 4 3 3 9 23 10 8 TOTALS … … … 1,072 1,935 2,237 4,552 6,367 5,747 7,462 5,614 * There were substantial changes in police force boundaries in 1974 as a result of local government re-organisation. For ease of reference, the post-1974 forces are shown alongside the pre-1974 forces to which they most nearly equate. But direct comparison of the figures for the two periods would give an inaccurate picture. †Approximate.
§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the number of occasions guns were issued to the police for protection duties for each year since 1970.
§ Mr. WhitelawIt would not be in the interests of security to publish such figures.
§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the number of times police have fired guns for each year since 1970 and the number of deaths and casualties in each case.
§ Mr. WhitelawThe number of incidents in England and Wales in which firearms have been used by the police since 1970 is as follows:
Year Number of incidents Deaths/Injuries 1970 Nil — 1971 1 1 injury 1972 2 1 death and 2 injuries 1973* * 1974* 1 death* 1975 3 1 injury 1976 Nil — 1977 4 1 death and 1 injury 1978 3 2 deaths 1979 3 1 death * Precise details are not available for these years. Firearms were also used by the police on 208 occasions since 1970 to destroy animals.