§ Mr. WelshTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prohibited weapons are held by private individuals in England by permission of the Secretary of State. [119870]
§ Mr. Charles Clarke[pursuant to the reply, 20 April 2000, c. 595W]: The final paragraph of that reply should have read as follows:
There are only eight private individuals in England authorised by the Secretary of State to possess a total of 1,337 prohibited weapons. The vast majority of these are held by one person in one of the most comprehensive private collections of historic firearms in the world. The remaining firearms are held by two people who provide highly specialised firearms training to units of the United Kingdom armed forces; a forensic firearms expert; a lecturer and technical consultant; the owner of a private museum; a professional trapper of dangerous animals who is called in by the police to deal with such animals as escaped big cats; and a researcher into ballistics.