§ Mr. David NicholsonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convictions for illegal possession of firearms have been obtained in each year since 1979; and how many of these cases involved illegal possession of(a) automatic and (b) semi-automatic weapons.
§ Mr. John PattenThe information held centrally, which may be incomplete and which relates to cases where unlawful possession of firearms was the principal offence, is given in the following table. It is not possible to identify separately offences involving the unlawful possession of semi-automatic weapons.
Persons found guilty of unlawful possession of firearms England and Wales Number of persons Year Total of which, persons found guilty of unlawful possession of a fully automatic weapon 1979 2,774 39 1980 2,532 48 1981 2,617 62 1982 2,104 62 1983 1,883 56 1984 1,559 77 1985 1,390 50 1986 1,251 62