Correspondence from Graham Widdecombe,
Head of Firearms, Home Office to the Chairman of the Committee
Thank you for your letter of 7 December requesting
further background information on the new supplier of tasers,
Tactical Safety Responses Limited.
TSR has four personnel, all of whom were employed
by Pro-Tect Systems Limited. Two of them are directors of the
new company and the other two will be employees. None of them
were directors of Pro-Tect nor did they hold any position of control
within Pro-Tect. None of them were involved in the actions which
resulted in Pro-Tect losing its section 5 authority.
TSR was formed on 28 September 2010 by its two directors.
As noted above, both TSR directors were employed
by Pro-Tect.
The Home Office sought information from TSR as to
its links with Pro-Tect. Northamptonshire Police also made further
enquiries about this on our behalf and did not raise any concerns
about the application. All four of TSR's personnel have given
notice to Pro-Tect that they are leaving and they will shortly
become former employees. TSR have indicated that they want to
make use of the remaining Pro-Tect Director, Kevin Coles, on a
consultancy basis, for business continuity purposes. The section
5 authority granted to TSR is clearly conditioned to require that,
in any such arrangement, the Pro-Tect Director must never have
possession of prohibited weapons and, in particular, he must not
have the power to authorise or direct the supply of prohibited
weapons. The new company leases premises from Pro-Tect, which
is continuing in business by supplying non-weapon taser products,
such as clothing.
TSR's section 5 authority is only valid for a period
of 6 months until 30 June 2011 to enable careful monitoring and
examination of the company during that period. Northamptonshire
Police will be checking the company's security procedures and
register of transactions during this period to ensure compliance
with the authority. In particular they will be looking at the
arrangements made to ensure that access to the stored X26 tasers
must require the separate action of two persons thereby preventing
a repeat of the situation where one person was able to act alone.
Should the company apply to renew its authority in June, as expected,
the Home Office will seek documentary evidence of TSR's continued
trade in tasers, and Northamptonshire Police will prepare a report
for us on TSR's security and their continued suitability to trade
in prohibited weapons without risk to public safety.
17 December 2010
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