Firearms

Ian Lucas

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) seizures and (b) disposals of firearms there were in each police authority area in England and Wales in each of the last three years for which records are available. (85313)

[holding answer 14 July 2006]: The requested data are not collected centrally.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many operations firearms were issued to police officers in England and Wales in each year since 1983; in how many of these operations shots were fired by police officers; and how many police officers were qualified to carry firearms in each of the last nine years. (85355)

The number of operations in which firearms were authorised since 1983, the number of incidents when shots were fired using conventional firearms, and the number of Authorised Firearms Officers in police forces in England and Wales since 1996-97 are shown in the following tables. Statistics for 2005-06 are likely to be announced in October.

*Number of operations in which firearms were authorised*
	Number of operations
1983	3,180
1984	2,667
1985	2,488
1986	2,453
1987	2,185
1988	2,227
1989	2,583
1990	2,874
1991	3,722
1992	4,479
1993	5,625
1994-95	6,141
1995-96	8,726
1996-97	12,379
1997-98	11,842
1998-99	10,928
1999-2000	10,915
2000-01	11,109
2001-02	13,991
2002-03	14,827
2003-04	16,657
2004-05	15,981
Note: Figures for operations in which firearms were issued to officers are not available for the first three months of 1994

*Number of incidents where conventional firearms were used*
	Incidents
1996-97	5
1997-98	3
1998-99	5
1999-2000	7
2000-01	9
2001-02	11
2002-03	10
2003-04	4
2004-05	5

*Number of authorised firearms officers (AFOs)*
	Total
1996-97	6,738
1997-98	6,585
1998-99	6,308
1999-2000	6,262
2000-01	6,064
2001-02	5,776
2002-03	5,763
2003-04	6,096
2004-05	6,243

Volume 449: debated on Wednesday 19 July 2006