Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many armed police officers were trained for deployment in the South Wales Police in (a) 2011-12, (b) 2012-13, (c) 2013-14, (d) 2014-15 and (e) 2015-16.

The Home Office annually publishes statistics on the number of authorised firearms officers (AFOs) in the ‘Police use of Firearms statistics, England and Wales’ series. An AFO is a police officer who has been selected, trained, accredited and authorised by their chief officer to carry and use a firearm.

The data tables for the latest publication can be found at:

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-use-of-firearms-statistics-england-and-wales-april-2015-to-march-2016-data-tables

Table 3 of the data tables gives the number of AFOs by force for the years ending 31 March 2009 to 31 March 2016.

The Home Office will publish ‘Police use of Firearms statistics, England and Wales, 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017’ in July.