Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the letter from Mr Steve Rodhouse, Director General (Operations) of the National Crime Agency, to the Home Secretary concerning the Offensive Weapons Bill, dated 11 October 2018, of the 17 rifles that the letter describes as having been stolen, how many were (1) full-bore target rifles, (2) hunting rifles, (3) .22 or other small calibre rifles; and how many of them were stolen from premises with security enhanced to level 3 of the Home Office Firearms Security Handbook; and whether the proportions of each of those categories of rifle compare to data from previous years.

The Home Office does not routinely collect statistics on lost or stolen firearms. However, the National Firearms Threat Centre have provided the following information in relation to rifles reported stolen between 17 July 2018 and 10 October 2018.

Police records now show 20 rifles reported stolen during this period. Seven rifles were full-bore, six of which were most likely used for quarry shooting. The remaining rifles were .22 or other small calibres. All of the rifles could be used for target shooting.

Similar breakdowns are not readily available for previous years but the police advise there were 77 rifles reported stolen during the whole of 2018, compared to 71 during 2017. Information on the security arrangements of firearm owners is not held centrally.