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Crime: Firearms

Answer

On (a), this data is not collected centrally.On (b), data from the court proceedings database held by the Ministry of Justice, showing the number of defendants convicted at all courts for possessing or distributing prohibited weapons or ammunition in England and Wales, broken down by police force area and for the years between 1998 to 2005, is shown in the following table.

Number of defendants convicted at all courts for possessing or distributing prohibited weapons or ammunition in England and Wales, broken down by police force area and for the years between 1998 and 2005¹,²,³,4
Force	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Avon and Somerset	32	6	9	27	15	20	18	25
Bedfordshire	8	2	2	5	10	9	7	6
Cambridgeshire	17	8	9	1	5	12	4	3
Cheshire	5	8	4	5	6	4	20	11
City of London	4	1	1	0	4	2	5	0
Cleveland	12	7	8	5	6	11	11	13
Cumbria	7	2	4	4	1	4	8	8
Derbyshire	6	13	12	5	14	6	15	17
Devon and Cornwall	13	10	8	10	13	16	15	12
Dorset	2	2	4	7	5	8	7	8
Durham	6	9	9	6	5	12	11	14
Essex	37	22	22	15	25	18	29	22
Gloucestershire	6	5	6	5	3	9	6	6
Greater Manchester	100	57	55	57	51	55	115	108
Hampshire	18	18	15	9	21	16	15	28
Hertfordshire	9	8	8	10	5	5	16	23
Humberside	5	5	7	8	9	9	14	17
Kent	20	11	22	29	18	22	18	11
Lancashire	32	12	19	17	11	15	22	27
Leicestershire	29	15	26	20	13	16	17	17
Lincolnshire	6	10	13	4	2	5	6	6
Merseyside	31	20	14	18	19	25	54	68
Metropolitan Police	270	221	173	224	257	297	268	302
Norfolk	8	7	6	4	5	2	12	9
North Yorkshire	11	7	7	3	1	6	3	3
Northamptonshire	6	11	4	4	5	4	4	7
Northumbria	43	43	32	40	26	45	38	38
Nottinghamshire	20	12	16	16	12	28	23	27
South Yorkshire	24	22	19	11	17	21	23	27
Staffordshire	8	7	0	6	16	8	15	13
Suffolk	2	4	8	5	4	7	7	6
Surrey	5	4	7	7	8	6	7	4
Sussex	10	8	4	11	9	14	18	21
Thames Valley	30	23	15	11	16	20	24	22
Warwickshire	5	5	4	3	7	4	7	6
West Mercia	6	11	5	7	7	5	11	6
West Midlands	92	87	74	71	79	66	72	69
West Yorkshire	72	55	36	33	38	33	52	51
Wiltshire	7	5	6	8	6	4	6	10
Dyfed-Powys	5	2	7	3	3	5	4	4
Gwent	2	4	8	5	4	4	6	4
North Wales	4	7	1	1	3	3	7	5
South Wales	9	16	11	17	11	18	21	24
Total	1,044	812	720	757	795	899	1,061	1,108
¹ These data are on the principal offence basis.
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 Includes the following statutes and offences:
Firearms Act, 1968 Sec 5(1) (Group I) as amended by Criminal Justice Act 2003 S.288
Possessing or distributing prohibited weapons or ammunition.
Firearms Act 1968 Sec 5(1)(b) (Group I) as amended by Criminal Justice Act 2003 Sec. 288
Possessing or distributing prohibited weapons designed for discharge of noxious liquid etc.
Firearms Act 1968 Sec 5(1A)(a) (Group I) as amended by Criminal Justice Act 2003 Sec. 288
Possessing or distributing firearm disguised as other object
Firearms Act 1968 Sec 5(1A)(b),(c),(d),(e),(f) or (g) as amended by Criminal Justice Act 2003 Sec. 288
Possessing or distributing other prohibited weapons
4 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.
Our ref: IOS 239-07
Source:
RDS Office for Criminal Justice Reform

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

139507; 462 c290-2W

Session

2006-07

Subjects

Crime Firearms

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk