Crime: Firearms Debate

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Department: Home Office

Crime: Firearms

Lord Rosser Excerpts
Thursday 9th February 2017

(7 years, 3 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Williams of Trafford Portrait Baroness Williams of Trafford
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I have all sorts of facts and figures but I do not have that one, so I will write to my noble friend on that point.

Lord Rosser Portrait Lord Rosser (Lab)
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Does the Minister agree that figures on the numbers of illegal firearms seized each year are not very meaningful without an estimate of the percentage of firearms illegally imported into the UK that are seized each year? Is she able to tell us whether we are seizing most firearms that are illegally imported or only a very small percentage?

Baroness Williams of Trafford Portrait Baroness Williams of Trafford
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That is a very difficult question to answer in reference to the first Answer that I gave. However, I can give examples of seizures, for example through Operation Dragon Root, during a specific period of time. In the October operation, there were 282 confirmed arrests and the recovery of 833 firearms, as I think the noble Lord, Lord Harris, pointed out. There were also seizures of 169 other weapons, 4,385 rounds of ammunition and over £575,000 worth of cash.