Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the evidence gathered for the review of air weapons regulation in England and Wales.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government conducted a review of air weapons regulation following the death of a child involving an air weapon. We invited views on the issue from a wide range of interested parties. As part of the review, the Government also looked at the arrangements that apply to the controls on air weapons in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but we did not solicit specific evidence in relation to the position in those administrations.
We published the outcomes of the review and sought views on our proposals for changes to the regulation of air weapons in the public consultation on firearms safety issues which ran from 24 November 2020 to 16 February 2021.
We will publish our formal response to the consultation, including in relation to air weapons controls in due course, following a full and careful consideration of the responses we received.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to publish her Department's response to its Firearms Safety consultation.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Firearms Safety Consultation was launched on the 24 November last year and concluded on the 16 February, receiving over 12,000 responses. The Government will consider these responses carefully and will publish its response to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Home Office:
What additional funding she plans to allocate to domestic abuse helplines to help meet demand during the covid-19 lockdown announced in January 2021.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Throughout this pandemic, we have worked with the Domestic Abuse Commissioner and charities to protect those for who home is not a safe space. We have paid £25.76 million to domestic abuse organisations from the funds allocated in the first wave of the pandemic, in order to support their helplines and other services. That includes £20,512 for Your Housing Group, based in the honourable lady’s constituency, to provide additional bedspaces.
We have also allocated an additional £11 million to domestic abuse and sexual violence services to help them to deal with increased pressures as a result of the pandemic.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2021 to Questions 143826 on Airguns: Scotland and 143828 on Airguns, whether the arrangements considered by her Department that apply to the controls on air weapons in Scotland and Northern Ireland included a review of the data on the number of air weapons incidents there between 2015-16 and 2017-19.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government looked at the controls on air weapons in Scotland and Northern Ireland when considering the review of air weapons regulation in England and Wales. Responsibility for air weapons regulation and publication of data related to this is devolved in Scotland, and Northern Ireland has separate firearms controls, which can make it difficult to draw firm conclusions to inform the case for potential changes in England and Wales.
We published the outcome of the review, and proposals for new controls, in the firearms safety consultation on 24 November 2020. The consultation will close on 16 February, after which the Government will publish its response, including in relation to air weapons controls. It is of course open to those responding to the consultation to set out their views on the case for, or against, the introduction of licensing arrangements for air weapons.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with ONS on the publication of data on types of offences involving air weapons and whether an offence resulted in injury, for each year since 2015-16.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
There have been no ministerial discussions with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) around the publication of data on types of offences involving air weapons.
Home Office statisticians have regular discussions with ONS colleagues about the content of crime statistics and will raise this issue with ONS.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the effect of licensing air weapons in Scotland on the number of offences involving air weapons in that country from 2015-16 and 2017-18.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government has looked at the arrangements that apply to the controls on air weapons in Scotland and Northern Ireland in the context of the review of air weapons regulation in England and Wales. The outcomes of that review are reflected in the current public consultation on firearms safety, which was published on 24 November 2020. The consultation sets out proposals for new measures in relation to air weapons.
The firearms safety consultation will close on 16 February, after which the Government will publish its response, including in relation to air weapons controls.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the evidence gathered for the Air Weapons Review on the safety of air weapons in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where air weapons are subject to a licensing regime.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government has looked at the arrangements that apply to the controls on air weapons in Scotland and Northern Ireland in the context of the review of air weapons regulation in England and Wales. The outcomes of that review are reflected in the current public consultation on firearms safety, which was published on 24 November 2020. The consultation sets out proposals for new measures in relation to air weapons.
The firearms safety consultation will close on 16 February, after which the Government will publish its response, including in relation to air weapons controls.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the ages of the perpetrators of serious air weapons offences, alongside that of the ages of victims of serious air weapons offences currently provided by the ONS under Offences involving the use of weapons: data tables, table 13.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office special collection on offences involving firearms recorded by the police in England and Wales is a victim-focused collection and does not include any personal information on the perpetrators of these offences.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress she has made on a public consultation on firearms safety.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
A public consultation on firearms safety issues will be published later this year. It will seek views on security arrangements for high muzzle-energy rifles and will cover other firearms safety issues that were raised during the passage through Parliament of the Offensive Weapons Act 2019.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 12 February 2020 to Question 12349, when she plans to respond to the consultation entitled, Statutory guidance to police on firearms licensing, which closed in September 2019.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government is continuing to consider the 11,000 responses which were received in reply to the public consultation on the introduction of statutory guidance to the police on firearms licensing which closed on 17 September last year.
The Government intends to publish its response to the consultation and the statutory guidance in due course.