Government has no idea of the true scale of crossbow crime across UK, warns MP

The Government needs to urgently assess the level of crossbow crime across the country after it admitted it was unable to say how many people were convicted of violent offences using the weapons in the past five years, an MP said.

MP Sir John Hayes will write to ask that the Government collate details of all reported offences involving a crossbow and related convictions after it failed adequately to respond to a question he raised in Parliament.

Sir John, the Tory MP for South Holland and the Deepings is supporting the Sunday Express Crackdown on Crossbows campaign, which is calling for the introduction of a licensing scheme similar to that for firearms, for the weapon which is increasingly being used in violent attacks.

This month TV racing presenter John Hunt lost his wife Carole, 61, and two of their daughters Louise, 25, and Hannah, 28, in a devastating crossbow attack at their home in Bushey Hertfordshire.

It was revealed on Thursday that the suspect Kyle Clifford, 26, is paralysed following a self-inflicted injury and still has not been quizzed by police.

In a separate case the week, Keiron Miller, 26, of Barry, South Wales, pleaded guilty to attempting to cause GBH with intent to a man with a crossbow and possession of an offensive weapon in public on June 15 in the town.

He will be sentenced later.

Mr Hayes asked the government to provide details of all convictions for violence involving a crossbow in the last five years.

But, the response he received from the Ministry of Justice said such a crime type was not collated.

It said: "It is not possible to separately identify offences specifically involving a crossbow from a range of other violent offences. This information to enable such a split may be held on court records, but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate cost."

Mr Hayes told the Sunday Express: "This answer shows that the Government has absolutely no idea about the level of violent crime involving crossbows so needs to urgently examine the evidence of illegal crossbow use by collating such information from forces across the country. I will be writing to the new Home Secretary without delay to ask for that.

"Violence with a crossbow appears to be an emerging crime type that needs addressing before it gets worse. The recent tragic murders of three women from the Hunt family in Bushey highlights this and only this week we learned of another shocking case where a man was prosecuted for attempting to use a crossbow for serious violence.

"We also need urgent answers to my other questions as soon as possible and for the Home Secretary to say what the intention is regarding new crossbow ownership legislation."

A Home Office spokesman said:“The Home Secretary will swiftly consider the findings to see if laws need to be tightened further.”