Prisons: Weapons
(asked on 28th January 2016) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many weapons have been confiscated in prisons in each year since 2010; and what the (a) number and (b) proportion of such weapons were firearms.
Data on confiscation of weapons of all types for the period requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The table below shows the number of real firearms found in prison over the 5 year period requested. In contrast there were 15 such incidents over the 5 year period from 2006 to 2010.
Firearms reported on the Incident Reporting System (IRS)1,2, 2011 to 2015 | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Firearm description | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
Real (Functional)3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Real (Non-Functional)4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Total | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(1) Includes NOMS operated Immigration Removal Centres. | |||||
(2) Excludes finds of toy guns or home-made replicas and imitation guns. | |||||
(3) “Functional firearms” were: a Taser mistakenly brought into a prison by police; youths shooting rabbits on prison grounds external to the prison; a CS Gas canister discovered in prisoner property sent in from court; a gun discovered in a bag brought in by a visitor. | |||||
(4) “Non-functional” firearm was found in a prison building outside the prison walls. | |||||