Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department’s timetable is for publishing the response to the call for evidence entitled Controls on the use of crossbows on public safety grounds, which closed on 9 April 2024.

The responses to the call for evidence on the controls on crossbows have been reviewed and we will publish the Government’s response to this shortly.

The Home Office collects a wide range of data from police forces in England and Wales under the Annual Data Requirement (ADR). These data include information on homicides where the method of killing was by a crossbow or catapult. The Home Office reviews the data required for policy delivery and publication supplied under the ADR on an annual basis with police forces, and we will consider whether wider information on offences involving crossbows should be added to the ADR in the future.