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They have them sometimes in central London, I suspect when there are specific events/threat levels are higher.

I've seen them a few times when I've been walking round London, always a bit shocked when I stumble across them.

I was once in a car that was pulled over at a speed trap in northern England, and noticed that they had guns on their hips. When asked, the officer said that they manned low-priority things like speed traps the majority of the time that they were on duty so they could rapidly respond to any firearms-related incidents. With how few of those we typically have, it sounds like an incredibly boring job.

You'll often see armed police outside court houses for high profile or gang related cases in the UK