The number of police operations involving armed officers fell slightly to 14,666 last year, while officers fired their guns in six incidents – up four from the previous 12 months, official figures show.
The Home Office figures, published on Thursday, reveal there were 5,647 police officers in England and Wales authorised to use guns in March 2015, a fall of 217 on the previous year.
An extra 1,500 officers due to be trained in the use of guns, announced by David Cameron earlier this month after the attacks in Brussels, will bring the total back to the previous peak of about 7,000 seen in 2010.
The number authorised to use firearms represents just over 5% of all officers.
The statistics show that the number of police operations involving armed officers has declined from a peak of 23,181 in 2009 to the latest figure of 14,666, down from 14,864 in 2014. The decline has coincided with a large fall in gun crime over the same period, with firearms offences down from 15,000 to 5,000.
New figures for the use of Taser stun guns, the “less lethal” alternative to firearms, show they were used by police 10,329 times in 2015. They were fired 1,921 times, or in 19% of incidents. Officers most commonly used their Tasers to “red-dot” a suspect, and not to fire on them, which happened in 51% of cases.
The figures show a sharp increase in the use of Tasers by police in England and Wales from 2010-2013 as they were rolled out to all 43 forces. Since then they have been used in about 10,300 incidents a year.
In October 2014, the home secretary, Theresa May, said media reports that Tasers were being used disproportionately in cases involving black or minority ethnic people were based on incomplete and out-of-date information.
She commissioned a police review of the Taser data to ensure the powers were being used appropriately. “The truth is we don’t know if you are more likely to be Tasered if you are black or Asian or white,” she told the National Black Police Association.
The latest set of figures do not include a breakdown showing their use by the ethnicity of the suspect.
