Written statement to Parliament

Statistics on police use of firearms in England and Wales 2011-12

Written ministerial statement on the publication of statistics on police firearms use in England and Wales: 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012.

From:
Home Office, Ministry of Justice, and The Rt Hon Damian Green MP
Published
11 July 2013
This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government
Delivered on:
The Rt Hon Damian Green MP

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.

The Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice (Damian Green): My right hon Friend the Home Secretary is today publishing the statistics on police use of firearms in England and Wales for the period 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012.

These show that:

  • the number of police operations in which firearms were authorised was 12,550 – a decrease of 946 (7.5%) on the previous year.

  • the number of Authorised Firearms Officers (AFO’s) was 6,756 – an increase of 103 (1.5%) officers overall on the previous year.

  • the number of operations involving armed response vehicles was 14,261 – a decrease of 2,513 (17.6%) on the previous year.

  • the police discharged a conventional firearm in 5 incidents (up from 4 incidents in 2010-11).

The detailed statistics are now available.

Published 11 July 2013