Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to uplift armed policing capability and capacity to respond more quickly and effectively to firearms attacks.

We are providing £144 million over the spending review period to uplift our armed policing capability and capacity, in order to respond more quickly and effectively to a firearms attack. The first phase of the armed uplift is complete, providing an additional 41 Armed Response Vehicles and around 650 armed officers. The next phase - an increase in Counter Terrorism Specialist Firearms Officers - is expected to complete by the end of 2018. Not only are the numbers of specialist armed officers increasing but they are now better trained and equipped to deal with a wider range of terrorist attacks.