§ Mr. Fordasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish in the Official Report the number of deaths and injuries caused by the legal use of .22 rimfire rifles in vermin control for such areas and years since 1968 for which information is readily available.
§ Mr. BrittanI regret that this information is not available centrally.
§ Mr. Fordasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will provide in the Official Report a statistical breakdown for 1978 showing (a) the number of offences committed in which air weapons were involved and (b)an age distribution of the offenders.
§ Mr. BrittanInformation on the number of indictable offences recorded by
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§ Mr. WhitelawI refer my hon. Friend to paragraphs 6 to 8 of chapter 11 of part II of the "Report on Non-Departmental Public Bodies", Cmnd. 7797. The number of appointments which have been or will be terminated in the case of each of the bodies listed is as follows:
the police in 1978 in which air weapons were reported to have been used is published in table 3.3 of "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales, 1978", Cmnd. 7670. The information available on the age distribution of offenders is given in the following table; for many offences the age of the principal suspect is not known.
INDICTABLE OFFENCES RECORDED BY THE POLICE IN WHICH AIRWEAPONS WERE REPORTED TO HAVE BEEN USED, BY AGE OF PRINCIPAL SUSPECT WHERE KNOWN
England and Wales 1978 Age of principal suspect Number of offences Under 14 295 14 and under 17 762 17 and under 21 406 21 and over 196 Age not known 2,576 Total 4,235
§ Mr. Fordasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish in the Official Report the number of accidents which have occurred on rifle ranges causing injury or death to military and civil personnel in the years since 1968.
§ Mr. BrittanInformation on accidents involving civilian ranges is not collected 217W by the Home Office. Accidents involving military ranges or military personnel are the concern of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence.
§ Mr. Fordasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will ensure that in all future publications of criminal statistics for England and Wales, the data of indictable offences in which firearms are reported to have been involved include all the classifications and combinations of those classifications used in the tables, namely, offence group, principal weapon, age of principal suspect, degree of injury, and so on, from and including the 1975 publication to permit inter-year comparisons and identification of trends.
§ Mr. BrittanI assume that the hon. Member is referring to the analysis in table 9.3 of "Criminal Statistics. England and Wales 1976", Cmnd. 6909. This table has not been repeated in later volumes because the age of offender was unknown for a large and changing proportion of cases and because some of the numbers involved were so small. The tables included in. "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales 1978"were considered to be those most useful for the identification of trends. If there is some other specific information which the hon. Member requires, I shall be pleased to look into the possibility of providing it.