§ Mr. HunterTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will take measures to ensure that information as to whether firearms used in crime are legally or illegally held is provided by the police; and if he will publish this information. [88706]
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§ Mr. BoatengInformation as to whether firearms used in crime are legally or illegally held is not published in the annual Criminal Statistics because, although the police are asked for this information, in practice they are only able to provide it in some six per cent. of cases. The information is thus not complete enough at present to make statistical analysis or publication worthwhile. The Home Office Research and Statistics Directorate is considering how to improve the quality of this data.
§ Fiona MactaggartTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offences involving pistols led to charges in the 12 months up to 1 October 1997 and in the 12 months thereafter. [88694]
§ Mr. BoatengNo information is kept centrally on the number of offences involving firearms that lead to charges.
The readily available information relates to notifiable offences recorded by the police in England and Wales in which handguns were reported to have been used. Annual figures are contained in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales", copies of which are in the Library.
§ Fiona MactaggartTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what has been the cost to date of paying compensation to firearms' owners; [88695]
(2) how many people have been charged for failing to surrender.22 pistols; [88692]
(3) what has been the cost to date of processing claims for firearms compensation; [88696]
(4) how many firearms have been surrendered following the ban on.22 pistols; [88691]
(5) how long, on average, it has taken for compensation to be paid for surrendered firearms. [88693]
§ Mr. BoatengPayments under options A and B of the compensation schemes for large and small-calibre handguns have been made in an average of 21 weeks, and in an average of 63 weeks under option C of the schemes. A total of £60.3 million has been paid in compensation to individual firearm certificate holders. The administration costs of the compensation scheme total £4.6 million. In addition, a total of £3.8 million was provided to police forces in England, Wales and Scotland to help meet their costs in handling the surrender exercise.
A total of 19,183 small-calibre pistols were surrendered to the police in England, Wales and Scotland during February 1998 following the passage of the Firearms (Amendment) (No 2) Act 1997. This is in addition to the 26,371 small-calibre pistols surrendered voluntarily under the Government's ex gratia payment scheme, which began in July 1997. Information on the number of persons charged for failing to surrender or otherwise lawfully dispose of.22 pistols was not collected centrally.