Previous Section | Back to Table of Contents | Lords Hansard Home Page |
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Williams of Mostyn): A great deal of training and preparation will need to be done before Section 3 or the other main provisions of the Act can be brought into force. Until that time, it would be premature to invite the courts to act as if those provisions had been brought into force.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Williams of Mostyn: We do not at present have any plans to bring the Human Rights Act into force at different times in different parts of the United Kingdom.
The devolved institutions established by the Scotland Act 1998, the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 will have no power to act in a way which is incompatible with the convention rights set out in the Human Rights Act. That issue will be justiciable in the courts under the terms of the
devolution legislation when those institutions begin to operate, even though the Human Rights Act may not have been brought into force.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Williams of Mostyn: As the noble Lord will be aware from the Home Secretary's speech at Third Reading of the Human Rights Bill in another place on 21 October (Official Report, col. 1359), and from his own correspondence with my right honourable friend the Lord Chancellor, we would like to bring the Act into force as soon as is feasible but there is a great deal of training and preparation to be done first.
Baroness Gould of Potternewton asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Williams of Mostyn: The statistics for April 1997 to March 1998 show that the number of police operations in which firearms were issued to officers was 11,842, a fall of over 4 per cent. on the previous year. The number of occasions on which firearms were discharged by police fell to just three, from five the previous year, resulting in two fatalities.
There was a decrease of 7 per cent., to 7,510 in the number of operations in which armed response vehicles were deployed. Firearms were carried in these vehicles but were not necessarily issued to officers on each occasion.
Full details are set out in the tables below:
1994-95 | 1995-96 | 1996-97 | 1997-98 | |
Total | 2,423 | 5,523 | 8,060 | 7,510 |
Avon & Somerset | 90 | 200 | 247 | 121 |
Bedfordshire | 0 | 239 | 309 | 285 |
Cambridgeshire | 27 | 15 | 23 | 19 |
Cheshire | 76 | 180 | 240 | 166 |
Cleveland | 89 | 465 | 1,014 | *57 |
City of London | 0 | 23 | 25 | 0 |
Cumbria | 19 | 44 | 64 | 43 |
Derbyshire | 58 | 53 | 97 | 99 |
Devon & Cornwall | 0 | 21 | 77 | 58 |
Dorset | 25 | 22 | 28 | 50 |
Durham | 27 | 38 | 62 | 85 |
Essex | 165 | 155 | 218 | 180 |
Gloucestershire | 0 | 10 | 13 | 48 |
Greater Manchester | 69 | 6 | ** | 56 |
Hampshire | 156 | 159 | 208 | 170 |
Hertfordshire | 37 | 20 | 35 | 25 |
Humberside | 6 | 35 | 284 | 437 |
Kent | 47 | 42 | 208 | 212 |
Lancashire | 48 | 187 | 320 | 321 |
Leicestershire | 50 | 101 | 126 | 68 |
Lincolnshire | 45 | 21 | 39 | 34 |
Merseyside | 73 | 239 | 618 | 559 |
Metropolitan | N/K | 1,025 | 790 | 954 |
Norfolk | 36 | 80 | 152 | 117 |
Northamptonshire | 21 | 3 | 20 | 29 |
Northumbria | 310 | 325 | 715 | 515 |
North Yorkshire | 0 | 0 | 13 | 52 |
Nottinghamshire | 40 | 44 | 66 | *256 |
South Yorkshire | 140 | 171 | 129 | 252 |
Staffordshire | 3 | 70 | 235 | 206 |
Suffolk | 113 | 117 | 120 | 135 |
Surrey | 25 | 47 | 52 | 76 |
Sussex | 304 | 413 | 173 | 284 |
Thames Valley | 6 | 73 | 164 | 184 |
Warwickshire | 22 | 54 | 91 | 127 |
West Mercia | 26 | 39 | 77 | 98 |
West Midlands | 58 | 98 | 103 | 102 |
West Yorkshire | 173 | 587 | 584 | 586 |
Wiltshire | 13 | 1 | 23 | 21 |
Dyfed Powys | 9 | 6 | 12 | 19 |
Gwent | 9 | 39 | 58 | 47 |
North Wales | 0 | 14 | 173 | 260 |
South Wales | 8 | 42 | 55 | 97 |
* These forces have amended their arrangements for counting ARV deployment to incidents.
** No figures available.
1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98
Total 6,141 8,726 12,379 11,842
Avon & Somerset 156 326 312 139
Bedfordshire 36 264 345 323
Cambridgeshire 73 47 54 96
Cheshire 93 219 288 216
Cleveland 107 487 1,026 103
City of London 325 275 308 307
Cumbria 44 54 72 68
Derbyshire 68 72 109 147
Devon & Cornwall 29 90 160 133
Dorset 46 36 36 54
Durham 100 111 131 103
Essex 267 267 331 505
Gloucestershire 27 33 41 51
Greater Manchester 110 142 214 165
Hampshire 195 190 245 217
Hertfordshire 69 47 96 82
Humberside 49 92 291 472
Kent 95 82 236 423
Lancashire 57 227 333 338
Leicestershire 78 138 155 89
Lincolnshire 50 25 58 52
Merseyside 116 280 671 675
Metropolitan 1,804 2,178 2,439 2,578
Norfolk 56 96 166 128
Northamptonshire 40 54 64 77
Northumbria 593 452 1,360 823
North Yorkshire 25 52 65 102
Nottinghamshire 47 57 84 306
South Yorkshire 172 225 155 302
Staffordshire 21 80 257 240
Suffolk 119 150 180 193
Surrey 60 70 133 87
Sussex 375 445 235 330
Thames Valley 65 96 215 227
Warwickshire 25 55 97 152
West Mercia 50 59 106 132
West Midlands 141 226 270 227
West Yorkshire 181 657 617 630
Wiltshire 26 26 26 26
Dyfed Powys 16 11 17 27
Gwent 20 47 89 86
North Wales 60 117 233 310
South Wales 55 69 59 101
1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98
Total 6,837 6,554 6,738 6,137
Avon & Somerset 156 157 165 161
Bedfordshire 67 48 46 42
Cambridgeshire 87 92 90 80
Cheshire 122 84 70 82
Cleveland 55 65 86 84
City of London 146 120 88 81
Cumbria 105 100 108 122
Derbyshire 140 130 110 100
Devon & Cornwall 116 140 151 147
Dorset 76 75 74 72
Durham 108 103 138 144
Essex 209 203 228 217
Gloucestershire 71 85 82 84
Greater Manchester 181 186 209 182
Hampshire 110 104 106 112
Hertfordshire 48 43 42 41
Humberside 110 104 90 102
Kent 147 144 150 150
Lancashire 135 138 132 125
Leicestershire 103 105 104 94
Lincolnshire 73 81 82 85
Merseyside 160 119 147 165
Metropolitan 2,013 1,915 2,035 1,523
Norfolk 117 99 98 102
Northamptonshire 83 95 92 92
Northumbria 166 160 173 126
North Yorkshire 142 134 108 95
Nottinghamshire 125 126 128 129
South Yorkshire 162 125 110 108
Staffordshire 84 80 78 86
Suffolk 65 70 82 96
Surrey 76 79 76 61
Sussex 142 149 180 146
Thames Valley 180 175 185 194
Warwickshire 56 50 41 38
West Mercia 160 153 155 159
West Midlands 87 87 88 95
West Yorkshire 156 150 131 114
Wiltshire 165 145 134 105
Dyfed Powys 58 57 70 71
Gwent 54 55 70 59
North Wales 71 70 72 90
South Wales 150 154 134 176
Back to Table of Contents
Lords Hansard Home Page