Courts: Security
(asked on 7th December 2015) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many incidents of confiscation of (a) knives, (b) firearms and (c) other weapons in (i) magistrates' and (ii) Crown courts there were in each year since 2010.
The Department takes the issue of security within courts extremely seriously and has a robust security and safety system to protect all court users and the judiciary. Security procedures, including the detection technology used, is continuously reviewed to ensure that security is as effective as possible’
The number of confiscated knives, firearms and other weapons in Magistrates and Crown Courts are as follows:
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| Knives | Firearms (incl. Replicas) | Other weapons (tools and sharp objects) | |||
Financial year | Crown | Magistrates | Crown | Magistrates | Crown | Magistrates |
12/13* | 322 | 1252 | 6 | 14 | 246 | 2325 |
13/14 | 705 | 3108 | 7 | 24 | 1994 | 12,388 |
14/15 | 3,469 | 3,439 | 12 | 19 | 4,063 | 12,701 |
Total | 4,496 | 7,799 | 25 | 57 | 6,303 | 27,414 |
*Figures for 2012/13 include data for an additional 8 week period from 1 February 2012 when the Total Facilities Management (TFM) contract was introduced.
The figures provided do not cover the period prior to 1 February 2012 as there was no consolidated reporting of items confiscated from court users prior to the introduction of the Total Facilities Management contract. For the purpose of this answer only full financial years have been provided.
The increase in the number of weapons taken from people as they enter Crown Courts between 2012/13 and 2014/15 may be due to the implementation of more robust training for Court Security Officers; improved rates of recording for the taking of such items and improved searching of people entering Crown Courts.