To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average fine imposed on persons under 18 years convicted of purchasing or hiring an air weapon under the Firearms Act 1968 was in each of the last five years. (206164)

Person under 18 acquiring a firearm became an offence under the Firearms Act 1968, as amended by Section 33 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006.

This Section of the Act came into effect on 1 October 2007.

Statistics for 2007 will be published in the autumn.

According to data recorded in the courts proceedings database for the offence of person under 17 acquiring an air weapon there have been no convictions over the period 2002 to 2006.

These figures have been taken from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.