Clause 28 - Restriction on sale and purchase of primers
Violent Crime Reduction Bill
11:45 am
Hazel Blears (Minister of State (Policing, Security and Community Safety), Home Office; Salford, Labour)
We do not want to bear down unduly on legitimate users. Hon. Members will know that we are preparing clarification to the exceptions to clause 30, dealing with imitations, and that that will relate specifically to re-enactments and the television and movie industries. It was always our intention that the Bill would contain such exceptions and we consulted widely during the summer to make them appropriate.
I understand that many film and theatre armourers already have a certificate that will enable them to purchase primers. Our amendment to limit the definition of the primers that it will not be possible to purchase to those for metallic small arms and ammunition may well help with some categories of people who want to obtain primers. The matter is a complex one and we want to get the provisions right.
A small number of people may, after the tightening of the definition, still have to buy commercially made-up ammunition rather than component parts, but we want to limit that category of people as much as possible and ensure that people will be able to buy primers if they have a legitimate need for them and the proper certificates, and if those primers will not be misused to make ammunition that may be used to injure people.