§ Mr. McWilliamasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offences were committed in the last five years where firearms were used, broken down according to the kind of weapon involved and the category of offence, respectively.
§ Mr. John PattenThe available information relates to notifiable offences recorded by the police in which firearms were reported to have been used. Figures for 1976 to 1986 by offence group are published in Home Office statistical bulletin issue 16/87. The following table gives figures for 1986 by type of principal weapon involved; those for earlier years are published in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales 1985" (Cm. 10). A full analysis of the 1986 figures will appear in chapter 3 of the command paper, to be published later this year.
Notifiable offences recorded by the police1 in which firearms were reported to have been used, by principal weapon England and Wales 1986 Number Long-barrelled shotgun 600 Sawn-off shotgun 560 Pistol 1,314 Rifle 53 Imitation 252 Supposed 668 Other 30 Total excluding air weapon 3,477 Air weapon 5,886 TOTAL 9,363 1 Includes offences of criminal damage but only where the damage was estimated at over £20.
Authorised Establishment 30 April 1979 Authorised Establishment 31 May 1987 Increase Avon and Somerset 2,853 3,030 177 Bedfordshire 947 1,000 53 Cambridgeshire 1,090 1,160 70 Cheshire 1,805 1,845 40 Cleveland 1,411 1,474 63 Cumbria 1,088 1,144 56 Derbyshire 1,709 1,793 84 Devon and Cornwall 2,673 2,794 121