§ Mr. Farrasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish comparable figures for each year since 1971 for offences involving firearms in the metropolis which take account of (a) the change on 1 January 1972 in the level of damage which made an 538W offence notifiable and (b) inflation; and if he will rework the figure given in his reply of 14 July, Official Report, c. 397, on this basis.
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe information available is given in the following table. Information is not collected centrally on the value or nature of the damage involved in each offence of criminal damage and so it is not possible to provide figures for 1971 on the same basis as those for later years or to adjust these figures for inflation. However, the number of notifiable offences, other than of criminal damage, in which firearms were reported to have been used, increased by 213 per cent. between 1971 and 1981.
Notifiable offences*recorded by the police in which firearms were reported to have been used Metropolitan Police Distric Numbers Total offences Criminal damage Other 1971 618 — 618 1972 625 13 612 1973 † † † 1974 † † † 1975 † † † 1976 1,349 46 1,303 1977 1,516 96 1,420 1978 1,436 133 1,303 1979 1,710 183 1,527 1980 1,627 210 1,417 1981 2,107 173 1,934 * For 1971, includes offences of criminal damage where the damage was estimated at over £100; for 1972 to 1981 includes such offences where the damage was estimated at over £20. † not available.