§ Lord Tebbitasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many people died in (a) England and Wales and (b) Scotland in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available as a result of gunshot wounds inflicted with criminal intent by licensed firearms being used by their owners.
§ Baroness BlatchInformation as to whether firearms used in offences of homicide are legally held is not at present routinely collected centrally in England and Wales. However, a special exercise has recently been carried out to find out whether the guns used in homicide were licensed or not. This covered the years 1992 to 1994, and out of a total of 196 homicides, information was available in 152 cases to show that 22 cases (14 per cent.) involved the use of a firearm legally held by the suspect.
Information as to whether the accused held a valid firearms certificate has only been collected since 1990 in Scotland and is only available for those cases in which the accused was identified and where the type of weapon involved required a certificate. The table below shows the number of homicides recorded in Scotland for the last six years where the accused involved held a valid firearms certificate.
Homicides in Scotland, showing those where a firearm was involved and where the accused held a valid certificate Year All homicide victims Homicides in which a firearm was alleged to have been used Homicides where accused held valid certificate 1990 80 3 1 1991 89 7 1 1992 136 6 — 1993 117 8 — 1994 111 9 1 1995 136 11 —