Prisons: Firearms

Ministry of Justice written question – answered at on 15 September 2021.

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Photo of Lyn Brown Lyn Brown Shadow Minister (Justice)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) functional and (b) imitation firearms have been discovered (i) during entry security procedures and (ii) within a prison unconnected to entry security procedures, in each of the last five years.

Photo of Lucy Frazer Lucy Frazer The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice

The table below provides details of firearms incidents, broken down by year from March 2016 to present and the number attributable to point of entry and in prison discoveries. It is important to note that during the period we only discovered one ballistic weapon in 2020, with the remainder of incidents relating to the discovery of air guns, Taser and CS spray. The vast majority of in prison discoveries where made during routine searches of prisoner accommodation or through acting on intelligence processed through our systems.

Firearms Incidents

Year

Imitation

Real

At point of entry

Within prison

2016

0

1

1

0

2017

2

1

2

1

2018

4

2

1

5

2019

3

3

3

3

2020

1

2

0

3

2021

1

1

1

1

Totals

11

10

8

13

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