§ Mr. RobathanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many claims for compensation are still outstanding under the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997; what percentage of the total number of claims this represents. [77320]
§ Mr. BoatengPayment offers have been made on all but around 420 claims which cannot yet be fully processed, mainly because the required evidence of value of the surrendered guns and ancillary equipment has not yet been provided. This represents less than 1 per cent. of the claims received. There are around 6,000 outstanding174W offers of payment awaiting a response from the claimant before a final payment can be made. The bulk of these should be cleared within the next few days.