To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many firearms and shotgun certificates have been issued on Merseyside in each of the years 1986 to 1991; and what information he has about the numbers of firearms and shotguns stolen in the county during the same period.
The number of applications for new firearm and shotgun certificates granted and the number of certificates renewed by the Merseyside police force in each year from 1986 to 1990, are shown in tables 2 and 4 of Home Office statistical bulletin Nos. 2/88, 33/88, 18/89, 26/90 and 23/91. Copies of these bulletins are in the Library.The total number of offences of burglary and theft recorded by Merseyside police force in which one or more firearms were reported as stolen and the number of these in which the principal weapon stolen was a shotgun is shown in the table for each year between 1986 and 1990.
| Burglaries and thefts reported by the police in which firearms were reported to have been stolen | ||
| Merseyside police force area | Number of offences1 | |
| Year | Total | Number where shotgun the principal weapon |
| 1986 | 104 | 13 |
| 1987 | 103 | 10 |
| 1988 | 71 | 7 |
| 1989 | 64 | 11 |
| 1990 | 59 | 7 |
| 1 More than one firearm may have been stolen in each offence. | ||