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Written question asked by Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 24 July 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 26 July 2007. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Monday, 3 September 2007 on behalf of the Home Office.

Offensive Weapons: Greater London

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes were recorded in each London borough involving (a) knives, (b) guns and (c) other offensive weapons in each of the last 10 years.
Answer

Available data relate only to offences where firearms have been fired, used as a blunt instrument against a person or used as a threat. The number of firearm offences (excluding air weapons) recorded by the City of London and Metropolitan police between 1996 and 2005-06 is given in the tables. Data cannot be broken down by London borough. Police force area breakdowns for firearm offences recorded during 2006-07 will be published in a future supplementary volume to the recent ‘Crime in England and Wales 2006/2007’ Home Office Statistical Bulletin.From the information collected on recorded crime it is not possible to identify those offences where knives or other offensive weapons were used, since details of the individual circumstances of offences are not recorded. From April 2007 police forces are providing data on knife-enabled grievous bodily harm and robbery offences.

Table 1: Crimes recorded in which firearms (excluding air weapons) were reported to have been used: City of London and Metropolitan police forces, 1996 to 2001-02
Number of firearm offences
1996 1,741
1997 1,960
1997-98 1,951
1998-99¹ 2,034
1999-2000 2,945
2000-01 3,036
2001-02² 4,197
¹ There was a change in the counting rules for recorded crime on 1 April 1998.
² Figures for some crime categories may have been inflated by some police forces implementing the principles of the National Crime Recording Standard before 1 April 2002.
Table 2: Crimes recorded in which firearms (excluding air weapons) were reported to have been used: City of London and Metropolitan police forces, 2002-03 to 2005-06¹,²
Number of firearm offences
2002-03 4,202
2003-04 3,891
2004-05 3,697
2005-06 3,884
¹ Data in this table take account of the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002, which may have resulted in inflated figures for some crime categories. These figures are not directly comparable with those for earlier years.
² Data for 2006-07 will be available in January 2008.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
153542; 463 c1852-3W
Session
2006-07
Subjects
Greater London Offensive weapons
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk