Police Firearms Training

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To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers completed firearms training in each police force area in each of the last three years. [120914]

Training in use of firearms takes place in individual force training establishments. Each officer receives regular training dependent on their role, in order to maintain authority from their force to carry weapons.No figures are held centrally about numbers of officers who undergo such training.

However, the following table gives the numbers of authorised firearms officers in each force, during the last three years for which figures are available, all of whom undergo training more frequently than annually.

Number of authorised firearms officers (AFOs)
	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02
Total	6,262	6,064	5,776
Avon and Somerset	150	135	116
Bedfordshire	46	45	48
Cambridgeshire	77	73	56
Cheshire	75	74	81
Cleveland	80	75	85
City of London	73	74	73
Cumbria	98	94	92
Derbyshire	77	81	80
Devon and Cornwall	119	100	108
Dorset	66	67	57
Durham	101	101	86
Essex	228	195	180
Gloucestershire	77	72	71
Greater Manchester	218	240	219
Hampshire	111	100	87
Hertfordshire	52	44	46
Humberside	97	102	96
Kent	136	136	113
Lancashire	143	132	138
Leicestershire	90	85	69
Lincolnshire	78	80	91
Merseyside	96	103	78
Metropolitan	1,977	1,940	1,805
Norfolk	110	114	104
Northamptonshire	75	77	51
Northumbria	114	109	125
North Yorkshire	59	66	66
Nottinghamshire	116	137	136
South Yorkshire	100	98	92
Staffordshire	81	67	71
Suffolk	98	90	90
Surrey	71	72	62
Sussex	131	118	120
Thames Valley	187	185	156
Warwickshire	54	45	50
West Mercia	129	130	125
West Midlands	93	83	111
West Yorkshire	110	117	116
Wiltshire	89	71	71
Dyfed Powys	65	61	77
Gwent	68	66	57
North Wales	92	67	83
South Wales	155	143	138

Volume 408: debated on Tuesday 1 July 2003