PLASTIC BULLETS

That this House expresses its concern that since the August 2011 riots the Metropolitan Police's stockpile of plastic bullets, also known as baton rounds, has increased to over 10,000 and that plastic bullets are also being stockpiled by other police forces in the UK; notes the lethal consequences of the issuing of plastic bullets in Northern Ireland where the use of plastic bullets in riot and non-riot situations has led to the deaths of 17 people, nine of them children, and serious injuries, including blindness and brain damage, to hundreds more; further notes that Sir Hugh Orde, a former Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, has voiced opposition to the use of plastic bullets as a form of crowd control in riot situations; and calls on the Government to reconsider its policy of authorising the use of a lethal and excessively dangerous weapon, which undermines the tradition of policing by consent in this country.