§ Miss Richardsonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether it is Government policy that each individual police force should be equipped with 511W CS gas; if he will list those forces which either are or plan to be equipped with such gas; how many officers are trained in the use of such gas and how such training is carried out; and what operational advice is given by his Department on the circumstances in which CS gas may be used by police.
§ Mr. BrittanYes. CS smoke equipment has been held by all police forces since the mid-1960s. Its use is governed by a statement of the then Secretary of State for the Home Department on 20 May 1965 —Vol. 712, c. 1651—that CS smoke was "for use in dealing with armed criminals or violently insane persons in buildings from which they cannot be dislodged without danger of loss of life. The tear smoke would not be used in any other circumstances."
The number of officers trained in the use of the equipment and the way in which they are trained are operational matters for individual chief officers of police, but the general practice is that the equipment would be used only by officers who have received specialist training.