THE use of armed police officers in Merseyside increased last year – at the same time as figures fell nationally.

Government statistics reveal that operations in which firearms were authorised jumped locally from 663 to 708 between 2010/11 and 2011/12 – an increase of nearly 7%.

Nationally there was a fall of 7.5% with the country's largest force, Metropolitan Police, achieving an even bigger drop of 21%.

The national trend shows a variable change year-on-year, but with a long-term decrease in use of firearms on operations.

The figures were compiled by the Home Office in response to a Parliamentary question.

The data shows the number of UK police operations in which firearms were authorised last year was 12,550 – a decrease of 946, representing a 7.5% reduction on the previous year.

The number of Authorised Firearms Officers (AFOs) was 6,756 – an increase of 103 officers overall on the previous year.

And the number of operations involving armed response vehicles was 14,261 – a decrease of 2,513.

Campaign groups argue that the arming of officers could lead to higher levels of gun crime.

Gill Marshall-Andrews, chairwoman of the Gun Control Network campaign group, said that increasingly arming police "sends out all the wrong messages."

She added that the "retrograde step" would likely "raise the stakes" and encourage more criminals to arm themselves.

But Merseyside Police said the decision to use armed officers is not one that is "taken lightly."

A spokesman said: "The numbers of operations which include armed response is reflective of our position as a metropolitan force which takes a proactive stance to tackling gun crime and other serious violence.

"When we do authorise the deployment of armed officers to an incident, the decision is taken with a high degree of expertise and consideration for public and officer safety - which will always remain our number one priority.

"The decision is not taken lightly and every authorisation is quality assured by a senior officer afterwards to ensure we continue to maintain our high level of standard in firearms authorisation.

"Merseyside Police also has a range of less lethal options for use in firearms and related serious incidents such as plastic baton rounds."