The home secretary, Amber Rudd, has authorised a more powerful Taser stun gun to be issued to police officers in England and Wales despite concerns over a number of deaths and serious injuries connected with their use.

Rudd has authorised the use of Taser X2, which can deliver two “shots”, unlike the single X26 currently in use in England and Wales, which is going out of production.

The introduction of a more powerful stun gun for officers to use in situations where firearms would have been deployed previously follows scientific and medical evaluation by Home Office advisers.

The experts acknowledged that the use of Tasers, first introduced in 2003 in England and Wales, had been accompanied by “a small number of deaths and serious injuries” but say that their number is low relative to the number of times the police use the electronic stun guns.



They have concluded that the evidence shows the level of predicted injuries from the X2 are in line with those for Tasers already in use in England and Wales.

Rudd said the authorisation of the next generation of Tasers will be accompanied by new requirements on officers to record the location and outcome every time they use their stun guns along with the ethnicity and age of those involved. The first set of data is due to be published this summer.

The policing minister Brandon Lewis said: “The government is committed to giving the police the tools they need to do their job effectively. We must ensure our officers have access to the best and most up-to-date technology available. Tasers are an important tactical option for the police, particularly in violent situations where other tactics have been considered or failed.”



The Metropolitan police are among forces that have pressed for a new model of Taser to be deployed. In a recent statement the force said: “The Taser X26 has been commercially available since 2003. As with all electronic devices, technology moves on and new models may offer significant advances in safety, use and accountability. All equipment has a realistic life expectancy and will eventually need to be replaced.”



The Taser company markets the X2 to law enforcement agencies claiming it incorporates their most requested features such as a backup shot, dual lasers, and a warning arc to protect life in the field.



“Much like the shift from the revolver to the semi-automatic, the days of the single-shot taser will soon be a thing of the past. And with dual lasers, cross-connect, and a more accurate smart cartridge, the future of Taser technology has arrived in the form of the X2,” it adds.

The government’s scientific advisory committee on the medical implications of less-lethal weapons says in its medical evaluation that there have been 17 deaths in which a Taser featured as one of the uses of force.



“In two of these deaths, both of which occurred in 2013, the Taser discharge was concluded to have been a causal or contributory factor. One of these cases involved the discharge-induced ignition of petrol.



“In the other case, the inquest concluded that the Taser discharge was one of a number of factors that contributed towards the fatal outcome. The cause of death has yet to be determined in five of the 17 UK fatalities in which the use of a Taser featured. Two of these deaths were in 2014 and three have been recorded to date in 2016.”

A Police Federation survey published last month showed that 75% of Metropolitan police officers believed they should all be issued with a Taser stun gun. This is despite recent cases including an investigation launched in January into how police officers in Bristol Tasered their own race relations adviser.



The former Aston Villa footballer Dalian Atkinson died aged 48 last August after a clash with police during which he was Tasered three times outside his father’s home in Telford, Shropshire. His family has since appealed for all Taser-equipped police officers to be issued with body cameras to record their use.



The decision to issue a more powerful Taser comes two years after Theresa May, when she was home secretary, ordered an in-depth review of the use of force by police amid concerns that Tasers and physical restraint were being used too often against mentally distressed people.



She cited London assembly figures showing that 30% of those Tasered in London by the Metropolitan police were emotionally or mentally distressed, and 50% of them were from black or ethnic minority backgrounds.



Separate Home Office figures released under freedom of information legislation in 2015 showed that black people were three times more likely than white people to be involved in Taser incidents. The figures showed that the electric stun guns were used by officers 38,135 times between 2010 and 2015 in England and Wales. Black people were the target in 12% or 4,582 cases despite the fact they make up only 4% of the population.

The new annual figures, including on the ethnicity of those Tasered, will provide greater transparency on the use of the “less lethal” weapons.



The most recent Home Office statistics published last August show that in 2015 Tasers were used by the police 10,329 times but they were only actually fired or discharged 1,921 times or 19% of times. The rest of the time they were used to “red dot” the suspect (51%), or just drawn (24%) or aimed or arced.