Pursuant to the answer of 4 February 2010, Official Report, column 498W, the number of persons found guilty at all courts for selected firearms related offences, by age group from 1998 to 2008 (latest available) can be viewed in the following table.
The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is 10 years of age.
Court proceedings data for 2009 are planned for publication in the autumn, 2010.
1998 1999 20003 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 20084 Males Age 10-16 19 21 22 29 41 32 27 14 6 9 9 Age 17-18 71 49 53 75 62 54 69 42 27 20 44 Age 19 and over 862 668 606 599 638 730 586 286 229 219 296 All Ages 952 738 681 703 741 816 682 342 262 248 349 Females Age 10-16 3 1 1 — — 5 2 1 — 1 1 Age 17-18 6 3 — — 7 4 3 — — 1 1 Age 19 and over 83 70 51 54 47 74 42 10 13 14 10 All Ages 92 74 52 54 54 83 47 11 13 16 12 Persons Age 10-16 22 22 23 29 41 37 29 15 6 10 10 Age 17-18 77 52 53 75 69 58 72 42 27 21 45 Age 19 and over 945 738 657 653 685 804 628 296 242 233 306 All Ages 1,044 812 733 757 795 899 729 353 275 264 361 1 The statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences the principal offence is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. 2 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts, and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. 3 Staffordshire Police Force were only able to submit sample data for persons proceeded against and convicted in the magistrates' courts for the year 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust enough at a detailed level and have been excluded from the table. 4 Excludes convictions data for Cardiff magistrates' court for April, July, and August 2008. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services in the Ministry of Justice