§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the number of occasions on which firearms were issued to policemen in each of the police authorities in England and Wales in 1978, 1979 and 1980; and what was the number of occasions on which they were used.
§ Mr. Mayhew[pursuant to his reply, 13 April 1981, c. 15]: The total number of occasions on which firearms were issued to police officers for particular incidents involving criminals or others known or believed to be armed is as follows:
FORCE 1978 1979 1980 Avon and Somerset 49 21 32 Bedfordshire 20 32 20 Cambridgeshire 4 7 6 Cheshire 11 31 21 Cleveland 15 14 11 City of London 141 182 74 Cumbria 2 10 12 Derbyshire 5 8 5 Devon and Cornwall 29 34 48 Dorset 9 19 11 Durham 3 7 1 Essex 48 51 93 Gloucester 18 21 12 Greater Manchester 57 75 73 Hampshire 100 96 42 Hertfordshire 34 39 14 Humberside 19 15 8 Kent 116 69 34 Lancashire 49 23 34 Leicestershire 24 21 19 Lincolnshire 12 5 7 Merseyside 101 74 96 Metropolitan 5,835 6,647 5,968 Norfolk 19 17 16 Northants 27 20 18 Northumbria 32 17 24 North Yorkshire 10 13 14 Nottinghamshire 24 40 29 South Yorkshire 35 20 63 Staffordshire 18 21 20 Suffolk 9 23 13 Surrey 23 18 27 Sussex 49 41 42 Thames Valley 28 29 46 Warwickshire 13 19 11 West Mercia 13 33 46 West Midlands 113 92 105 West Yorkshire 75 77 90 Wiltshire 13 34 14 Dyfed/Powys 2 4 2 Gwent 1 2 5 North Wales 8 15 9 South Wales 20 72 40 TOTALS 7,233 8,108 7,275 Firearms were used by police officers on three occasions in 1978, three in 1979 and nine in 1980. In addition, firearms were used on a number of occasions to destroy injured or dangerous animals.