Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent the supply of guns and ammunition at a neighbourhood level.

The Government and police work nationally, and with international partners, to reduce the threat to the UK from the criminal use of firearms. In 2013/14, firearms were used in a small proportion of total police recorded crime, 0.2%. The figure for 2009/10 was 0.3%

Figures from the National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS) show that in 2013 and 2014, there were 757 weapons recovered in firearm surrenders undertaken in the Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Greater Manchester and West Midlands Police Force areas.

Building on the success of these surrenders, NABIS co-ordinated firearms surrenders in the majority of the remaining Police Force areas in England and Wales during 2014 and 2015, resulting in the recovery of 5,468 weapons and over 17,000 items of ammunition. The items recovered included:

• 588 pistols;
• 479 revolvers;
• 1,850 shotguns;
• 416 rifles;
• 1,269 air weapons; and,
• 866 other items including gas guns, stun guns, CS sprays, BB guns and blank firers.

The total number of weapons recovered from all forces in England and Wales as a result of these surrenders was 6,225.

Following publication of the Law Commission’s report on firearms law published on 16 December 2015 we will be reviewing options to strengthen the current legislation to ensure it safeguards against abuse by criminals.