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Written question asked by Lord Grayling (Conservative) on Monday, 25 January 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 27 January 2010. It was answered by Alan Johnson (Labour) on Wednesday, 3 February 2010 on behalf of the Home Office.

Firearms

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many handguns were held in England and Wales by virtue of firearm certificates in each year since 2004-05.
Answer

Available data relate to handguns and muzzle-loading handguns possessed on certificate for 2004-05 and 2005-06, and are given in the table. Data on certification are now drawn from the National Firearms Licensing Management System (NFLMS) and information in this degree of detail is not at present available.

Handguns and muzzle-loading handguns possessed on certificate: England and Wales, 2004-05 to 2007-08
Handguns Muzzle-loading handguns
2004-05¹ 16,016 7,911
2005-06² 16,399 8,728
2006-07³ n/a n/a
2007-084 n/a n/a
n/a denotes figures not available.
¹ Information on the firearms breakdown was provided by 37 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales. The missing six forces are: Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Staffordshire, Sussex and South Wales.
² Information on the firearms breakdown was provided by 38 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales. The missing five forces are: Bedfordshire, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire and Sussex.
³ Figures for 2006-07 are not available, due to the transition from in-force data collection systems to the National Firearms Licensing Management System (NFLMS) in 2006.
4 Figures for 2007/08 are not available, due to the transition from in-force data collection systems to the National Firearms Licensing Management System (NFLMS) in 2006.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
505 c345W; 313779
Session
2009-10
Subjects
Handguns
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk