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 12350, when she plans to respond to the consultation entitled, Policing and Crime Act: proposals to implement legislation to define antique firearms, which closed in December 2017.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We are carefully considering the consultation responses we received and are engaging further with interested parties on this technical issue. We will publish our conclusions as soon as possible and at the same time we will lay regulations before Parliament to define which firearms can safely be regarded as antique.
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 to Question 12342 on Airguns: Regulation, for what reason her Department has not published its response to the air weapons review that closed in February 2018.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We intend to publish our conclusions relating to the outcome of the review of air weapons regulations alongside a consultation on firearms safety issues, to which we committed during the passage of the Offensive Weapons Act. Preparations for that consultation are currently ongoing and it will be published later this year
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
The firearms safety consultation will be published shortly. 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, what the terms of reference will be for the public consultation on firearms safety.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The firearms safety consultation will be published shortly. 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,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 launched a public consultation on the introduction of statutory guidance to the police on firearms licensing in July last year. The Home Office received over 11,000 responses to the consultation and these are now under consideration. The Government response to the consultation will be published in due course.
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 respond to the consultation entitled, Policing and Crime Act: proposals to implement legislation to define antique firearms, which closed in December 2017.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Policing and Crime Act 2017 contains a power to define in regulations which firearms can safely be regarded as antique and which still present a danger to the public and therefore require licensing.
A public consultation was held in late 2017 to seek views on the detail of these regulations. We are presently considering all the responses received, many of which are necessarily technical, and we intend to publish the
Government’s response and lay the regulations before Parliament as soon as possible.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of young people under the age of 18 charged with air weapons offences.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office collects data from the police in England and Wales on crimes recorded and on the outcomes of investigations. However, it is not possible to separately identify offences involving air weapons.
A separate special collection on offences involving firearms does not collect information on charges.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of 1 April 2019 of the Minister for Policing and the Fire Service, Official Report, column 786, what the timetable is for the publication of the outcome of the air weapons review which closed in February 2018.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government fully understands the interest that Members of Parliament and others have in the outcomes of the review of air weapons regulation, and the concerns that have been expressed about the consequences, sometimes tragic, arising from the misuse of these weapons.
We intend to publish our conclusions as soon as possible alongside a consultation on firearms safety issues, to which we committed during the passage of the Offensive Weapons Act.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of 10-19 year olds were victims of air weapons offences in each year since 2010.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office collects statistics on the number of offences involving the use of firearms recorded by the police in England and Wales. The age of victim is only collected for more serious offences when the principal weapon is an air weapon. The number and proportion of all victims of serious air weapon offences is in the table.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of under-18 year olds admitted to hospital for injuries caused by firearms were injured by firearms other than a (a) handgun, (b) rifle, (c) shotgun and (d) larger firearm in each year since 2010.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not hold information on those admitted to hospital due to injuries caused by firearms.
Information on hospital admissions are the responsibility of the Department of Health and Social Care. These are published by NHS Digital and are available here: