Figures show rise in use of Tasers in last five years as they have been adopted by forces across England and Wales

Police in England and Wales used Tasers on more than 10,000 occasions for the first time in 2013, an increase of 27% over the previous year, according to Home Office figures.

The annual official Taser statistics show that officers ended up firing their Taser weapons at suspects on 1,733 occasions in 2013, and used them on a stun setting a further 284 times.

The publication of the figures showing the rapid rise in the use of the American "electroshock" weapons by the police in England and Wales comes after an officer was ordered earlier this week to apologise in person to a blind man he Tasered after mistaking his white stick for a samurai sword.

The Association of Chief Police Officers defended the use of Tasers, saying that when police had to use force there was no such thing as a risk-free option.

"All options carry some form of risk. Taser is a less lethal weapon. It poses significantly less risk than other tactical options used by the police such as metal batons, police dogs and CS spray," said Commander Neil Basu, Acpo's spokesman on Tasers.

"Officers are trained to use Taser to deal with violence or threats of violence and they are individually accountable in law for the amount of force they use."

The Home Office figures show a rapid rise in the use of Tasers by the police over the past five years as they have been adopted by forces across England and Wales. Tasers were used on a little more than 3,000 occasions in 2009. This rose to 8,161 times in 2012 and to 10,380 in 2013, a year-on-year rise of 27%.

The increase partly reflects the adoption last year of the stun weapons in the four remaining forces – Cambridgeshire, Essex, Sussex and Thames Valley – which introduced specialist units to use them.

The figures show that officers did not fire or discharge their Tasers on 80% of the 10,380 occasions they were used last year.

In 22% of cases they simply drew them. They were aimed at a suspect in 5% of cases and red-dotted or arced in 52% of cases. In red-dot cases, the Taser is not fired but aimed and activated so that a red dot appears on the suspect. In arcing, the Taser is allowed to spark without aiming it or firing it. A Taser was fired in 17% of cases (1,733 times), so that it delivered an electrical discharge to the suspect. In the remaining 3% of cases (284 times), the Tasers were used in stun mode.

The figures were published alongside annual statistics for the police use of guns, which show that the number of operations in which the police were authorised to use firearms in 2012-13 was 10,996 – a fall of 1,554 (14%) over the previous year.

The number of officers authorised to use firearms fell by 665 to 6,091 and the number of police operations involving an armed response vehicle was down by 1,145 to 13,116.

The official figures show that the police fired their guns in three incidents, down from five the previous year.

The continuing decline in the police use of guns is likely to reflect the sharp falls in gun crime in recent years as well as the increase in the use of Tasers. The number of police operations in which police firearms were authorised has fallen from 16,657 in 2003-04 to 10,996 in 2012-13.