https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transpar ... cefirearms
You asked
Could you please tell me how many military and police firearms have been lost, stolen or otherwise become unaccounted for from 2009 until the latest available data. It would be appreciated if the figure could be split between military and police weapons. Information/numbers of whether the weapons were ever recovered would also be useful as well as the type of firearm (e.g. Rifle, pistol, taser etc).
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
Unfortunately we are unable provide this information. We hold administrative data supplied to us by the Home Office for the aggregated number of theft offences and burglaries reported to the police. It is not possible to disentangle from this information whether the item stolen was a firearm. We also do not hold any information which relates to lost items. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) and individual police forces may hold records of the number of lost or stolen firearms at the level of their individual organisations.
Historically it appears that the media have reported on these figures following Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made directly to these bodies.
22 days for them to tell me they don't have that information!
A FoI request was made by a paper (I forget which one) which showed over 3 years (ending in 2009, hence that was the date I chose) that various police forces had lost 150+ firearms (I can't remember if it clarified the type of firearm and these may have 'just' been CS sprays).
EDIT: Here it is;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... years.html
Doing a bit of Google-fu has revealed this from the Met no 'firearms' but look at the number of CS sprays "stolen"!;
https://www.met.police.uk/globalassets/ ... ammunition
