Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people suffered (a) death and (b) injury on his Departments firing ranges in each year since 2018.

Since 2018, there have been two fatalities involving UK Armed Forces personnel on firing ranges. These occurred in 2018 and 2021.

During the same period 1,429 people sustained injuries on firing ranges. The table below provides a breakdown of injuries by year between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2023:

Table 1: Number of people injured at firing ranges broken down by year.

'Table 1 lists all injuries linked to firing range activities. These injuries range from superficial e.g. abrasions, lacerations, physical strains, falls to more severe e.g. gunshot wounds, hearing loss.'

[1] The annual increases in 2022 and 2023 may be due to improved reporting levels due to a new reporting system being introduced.