EACH JANUARY the Home Office releases two
sets of gun crime data for England and Wales. A Quarterly
Report provides provisional data on gun offences (excepting those
involving airguns) for the year ending the previous September.
A more detailed set of statistics, which includes airgun offences, is
contained in an Annual Report for the year ending the previous
March.
The simultaneous release of data, which
cover different
periods, can lead to confusion, but there is no doubt that the common
theme shared in
the two Reports released in January 2009 is that the total number of
firearms offences continues to fall.
The graph below is based on the figures
released in the Annual Report and shows a continuing downward trend in Firearms
Offences since 2003/04.
Provisional data for more recent periods
indicate that
this downward trend has been sustained, even though the data are not directly
comparable because airgun offences are excluded from the
Quarterly Reports.
Year
ending: Gun Crimes (not Airgun)
March 2008
9865
Annual
Report - 02/09 - published in Jan 09
June 2008
9306
Provisional data from Quarterly Report - published in Oct 08
September
2008
8600
Provisional data from Quarterly Report - 01/09 - published in Jan 09
> See
Additional Comment on the Data
in the Annual Report
> See
Crime Figures for
England & Wales
> See
Home Office Report
Written: 26 January 2009
