Member

It is a very small group of people who might be affected as suspects in these cases. There are only about 5,500 firearms officers in England and Wales. Over the last 20 years, they shot dead on average three people per year and wounded another two. It is a very rare event that police officers in the UK will shoot people. It has been quite hard for me to find details about how often they have been charged with offences, but I estimate it is around five to 10 times over the last 20 years, so it is quite a rare event. Even if this is to be agreed, and the Bill passes in the form that it is, not that many people will be affected by it. I do not think the press’s accountability mechanism will be affected vastly.