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Crime: Lancashire

Volume 457: debated on Wednesday 7 March 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many gun-related crimes there were in Lancashire in each of the last 10 years. (124876)

Available data from 1996 up to and including 2005-06 are given in tables (a) and (b).

Figures for 1996 and 1997 include those involving air weapons.

Table (a): Crimes recorded by the police in Lancashire1 in which firearms (excluding air weapons) were reported to have been used, 1996 to 2001-02

Number

19961

89

19971

87

1998-992

50

1999-2000

78

2000-013

59

2001-02

103

1 Figures include offences involving the use of air weapons.

2 There was a change in counting rules for recorded crime on 1 April 1998.

3 Numbers of some recorded crimes may have been inflated by some police forces implementing the principles of the National Crime Recording Standard before 1 April 2002.

Table (b): Crimes recorded by the police in Lancashire1 in which firearms (excluding air weapons) were reported to have been used, 2002-03 to 2005-06

Number

2002-031

66

2003-04

58

2004-052

259

2005-062

372

1 The National Crime Recording Standard was introduced in April 2002. Because of this, figures before and after that date are not directly comparable.

2 Some of the increase may be due to the change in the force’s recording practices. There was more than a three-fold increase in offences from 2003-04 to 2004-05. This increase is mainly due to offences involving imitation weapons. New, more explicit guidelines for the classification of weapons may have increased the recording of firearm offences in 2004-05, especially those committed with imitation weapons.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his estimate is of the total cost of alcohol-influenced acts of vandalism in Lancashire in each of the last 10 years. (124878)