To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) firearms and (b) knives were seized by police in (i) Ribble Valley constituency and (ii) Lancashire in each of the last three years. (210907)

[holding answer 13 June 2008]: Information on firearms seizures is not collated centrally. However, the development and implementation of the National Ballistics Intelligence Database (part of the National Ballistics Intelligence Service) should provide information in future about firearms seized by police.

In 2003, a national firearms amnesty resulted in the surrender of 44,000 firearms and more than 1 million rounds of ammunition. The national knife amnesty, held from 24 May to 30 June 2006, saw almost 90,000 items handed in to police.