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Written question asked by Ashok Kumar (Labour) on Wednesday, 25 November 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 30 November 2009. It was answered by Alan Campbell (Labour) on Tuesday, 8 December 2009 on behalf of the Home Office.

Firearms: Injuries

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) the North East and (d) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency were (i) fatally and (ii) non-fatally wounded by a firearm in each year since 1997.
Answer

Available information relates to crimes recorded by the police in which firearms (excluding air weapons) were reported to have been used, resulting in fatal and non-fatal injury in England and Wales, England, the North East region and Cleveland police force area. Constituency level data are not collected centrally. Data for the period 1997-98 up to and including 2007-08 are given in the following table. Figures for 2008-09, including a breakdown by police force area, will be published on 21 January 2010.Firearms are taken to be involved in a crime if they are fired, used as a blunt instrument or used as a threat.

Crimes recorded by the police in which firearms (excluding air weapons) were reported to have been used¹, resulting in fatal and non-fatal² injury, England and Wales, England, North East Region³ and Cleveland; 1997-98 to2007-08
Injury type
1997-98 Fatal injury Non-fatal injury
England and Wales 54 750
England 52 745
North East Region 1 13
Cleveland — 7
1998-994
England and Wales 50 815
England 50 807
North East Region 5 12
Cleveland 1 2
1999-2000
England and Wales 62 1,133
England 62 1,124
North east region 6 11
Cleveland 2 3
2000-01
England and Wales 72 1,310
England 71 1,275
North East Region 2 12
Cleveland — 3
2001-025
England and Wales 96 1,783
England 94 1,761
North East Region — 7
Cleveland — 2
2002-036
England and Wales 80 2,099
England 78 2,041
North East Region — 17
Cleveland — 3
2003-04
England and Wales 68 2,299
England 68 2,245
North East Region — 77
Cleveland — 17
2004-057
England and Wales 76 3,828
England 76 3,704
North East Region 1 101
Cleveland — 14
2005-06
England and Wales 49 3,773
England 48 3,679
North East Region — 75
Cleveland — 28
2006-07
England and Wales 56 2,955
England 56 2,855
North East Region 5 48
Cleveland 1 1
2007-08
England and Wales 53 3,188
England 53 3,101
North East Region 1 54
Cleveland — 6
¹ Firearms are taken to be involved in a crime if they are fired, used as a blunt instrument or used as a threat.
² Non-fatal injuries include serious and slight injuries.
³ The Northeast Region includes: Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria police forces.
4 There was a change in the counting rules for recorded crime on 1 April 1998.
5 Figures may have been inflated by some police forces implementing the principles of the National Crime Recording Standard before 1 April 2002.
6 The National Crime Recording Standard was introduced on 1 April 2002. Figures for some crime categories may have been inflated by this.
7 More explicit guidelines for the classification of weapons introduced on 1 April 2004 may have increased the recording of firearm offences, particularly those committed by imitation weapons.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
502 c223-4W; 302928
Session
2009-10
Subjects
Firearms Injuries
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk