Armed Forces: Firearms
(asked on 25th June 2015) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) handguns, (b) rifles and (c) automatic weapons have been (i) lost and (ii) stolen in operations overseas in each of the last two years.
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) takes the security of firearms and ammunition very seriously and has robust procedures to deter and prevent loss and theft. Given the dynamic nature of military training, exercises, and operations it is impossible to mitigate against all risk. Nevertheless, all losses and thefts of firearms and ammunition are fully and rigorously investigated, in partnership, as necessary, with civilian police forces.
The numbers lost and stolen over the past two years are shown below. These represent a tiny fraction of around 360,000 firearms that the MOD owns and operates. In drafting the answer to these questions, it has become apparent that the answer to Question 2466 was incorrect, overstating the losses and thefts in the UK. The information has been corrected in this answer.
Year | Status | UK | Operations Overseas | |||||
2013 | Lost/Accounted for | Stolen | Lost on Combat Ops | Stolen | ||||
Recovered | 1 x 40mm Grenade Gun | - | 1 x SA80 Rifle 1 x 9mm Sig Sauer Pistol | 1 x SA80 Rifle | ||||
Lost at sea | 1 x SA80 Rifle 1 x 9mm Sig Sauer Pistol 1 x MP5 Pistol | - | ||||||
Not Recovered | 2 x SA80 Rifle 2 x Electronic Range Rifles | 1 x Deactivated 9mm Tokarev pistol 1 x SA80 Rifle
| 1 x M4 Rifle | |||||
Total | 8 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ||||
2014 | Recovered
| 1 x SA80 Rifle | - | - | - | |||
Lost at Sea | 1 x SA80 Rifle 1 x 9mm Sig Sauer Pistol | - | - | - | ||||
Not recovered | 1 x Weapon Sight | 2 x Deactivated AK47 Rifle 1 x Replica Machine Gun | - | - | ||||
Total | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | ||||