Written statement to Parliament

Police use of firearms: statistics

This written ministerial statement was laid in the House of Commons by Damian Green and in the House of Lords by Lord Taylor of Holbeach.

From:
Home Office and The Rt Hon Damian Green MP
Published
27 March 2014
This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government
Delivered on:
The Rt Hon Damian Green MP

The Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice (Damian Green):

I am today publishing statistics on police use of firearms in England and Wales for the period 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013. These show that:

  • The number of police operations in which firearms were authorised was 10,996 – a decrease of 1,554 (14.1 %) on the previous year
  • The number of Authorised Firearms Officers (AFO’s) was 6,091 – a decrease of 665 (10.9%) officers overall on the previous year
  • The number of operations involving armed response vehicles was 13,116 – a decrease of 1,145 (8.7%) on the previous year
  • The Police discharged a conventional firearm in 3 incidents (down from 5 incidents in 2011-12)

Full details are set out in the following tables

Published 27 March 2014