§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offences were carried out in each year using(a) replica firearms which were capable of being modified to fire ammunition and (b) imitation firearms incapable of being so modified. [7045]
§ Miss Widdecombe[holding answer 2 December 1996]: The available information relates to the number of offences where imitation firearms of all types were used. The figure includes replicas, but further details are not collected centrally.
Such figures are published annually in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales". Copies of these publications are in the Library.
In England and Wales in 1995, 378 notifiable offences were recorded by the police in which imitation firearms were reported to have been used.
§ Mr. PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what considerations led him to place controls on only those replica firearms which can be modified to fire ammunition. [7047]
§ Miss Widdecombe[holding answer 2 December 1996]: The Firearms Act 1982 applies licensing controls to imitation firearms which are so constructed or adapted as to be readily convertible into a functioning firearm. Other toy and imitation firearms pose no danger in themselves. The use of imitation firearms of any kind in furtherance of crime carries the same penalty as the use of a real firearm: life imprisonment.