§ Mr. Farrasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, in view of the fact that the use of shotguns in serious offences declined from 13 per cent. to 10 per cent. as shown in criminal statistics for England and Wales, 1979, but that this decline is masked by the inclusion in the same table of air weapons offences involving criminal damage of £20 or more, he will either have the weapon by weapon figures shown in separate tables in future, or alternatively raise the air weapon criminal damage figure to £100.
§ Mr. Mayhew[pursuant to his reply, 29 January 1981, c. 483]: Tables 3.3 and 3.4 of Criminal Statistics, England and Wales, 1979 (Cmnd. 8098) already give the numbers of serious offences recorded by the police in which firearms were reported to have been used separately for each type of weapon used. Raising to £100 the lower limit for the value of criminal damage for which such offences are reported would increase the effect of inflation on the year-to-year changes in the figures.