Baton Rounds and CS Equipment (Hansard, 19 May 1986)

§ Mr. Hurd

As the House was informed at the time, plastic baton rounds and CS equipment for use in dealing with serious public disorder were made available to police forces in Great Britain following the riots in 1981. The Home Office has today issued a circular to chief officers of police and police authorities in England and Wales setting out new arrangements for supplying the equipment.

Future requirements will be met from stocks purchased by the Home Office. Where financial authorisation has been given by the police authority concerned, the force will be able to purchase from the Home Office stocks. Where such authorisation is withheld, and the chief officer's assessment of need is endorsed by HM Inspector of Constabulary, I regard it as essential that the equipment should be provided, as I made clear in reply to a question from my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Mid-Bedfordshire,(Mr. Lyell) on 26 November 1985 at columns 515–16. In such circumstances, equipment will be provided from the central store of equipment at Home Office expense. Arrangements have also been made, on the same basis, for training in the use of the equipment where a police authority is not prepared to pay for this.

A copy of the circular has been placed in the Library.

Revised guidelines on the use of CS and baton rounds to deal with serious public disorder have also been issued today to all chief officers of police in England and Wales.

The guidelines cover the following points: CS or baton rounds are to be used only with the express authority of the chief officer of police (or in his absence his deputy) under the direction and control of a designated senior officer, and by police officers who have been trained in the use of the equipment and know its characteristics. CS or baton rounds are to be used only as a last resort where conventional methods of policing have been tried and failed, or must from the nature of the circumstances be unlikely to succeed if tried; and where there is a risk of loss of life, or serious injury (or widespread destruction of property such that there is, or is judged to be, a sufficiently serious risk of loss of life or serious injury to justify the use of baton rounds or CS); and where the use of CS and baton rounds is judged as necessary because it is likely to reduce that risk. An oral warning is to be given to the crowd to disperse before CS or baton rounds are used. Once the use of baton rounds has begun, the need to continue use is to be assessed continuously. Particular caution is to be taken over the use of baton rounds for offensive purposes. If a chief officer is not present at the scene, he must be satisfied from reports that the criteria for use set out above have been met. In such circumstances, before the chief officer's authority for use is put into effect, a designated senior officer should satisfy himself at the scene that the criteria are met. After each operational firing of baton rounds, a report on the circumstances of the incident in which they were fired is to be made to the Home Secretary. Only CS equipment and baton rounds and launchers of a type authorised by the Home Office are to be used for these purposes. 16W Nothing in the guidelines affects the principle, to which section 3 of the Criminal Law Act 1967 gives effect, that only such force as is reasonable in the circumstances must be used. The degree of force justified will vary according to the circumstances of each case.

Plastic baton rounds have never been used in Great Britain and I very much hope that they will never need to be. But it is clearly right that chief officers should have baton rounds and CS equipment available following the unprecedented ferocity of the disorders last autumn. The new arrangements for the provision of this equipment ensure that all chief officers with a requirement for plastic baton rounds and CS equipement will be able to obtain supplies. The revised guidelines set out very strict conditions for the use of the equipment.