Firearms Licensing fees rise 133% but UK police performance gets worse

On 5 February, firearms licensing fees in England, Wales and Scotland increased by an average of 133% across all functions. Shotgun and firearm certificate renewals are now £126 and £131. BASC condemned the decision to raise fees by the then Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson, given the lack of consultation and transparency on how those increases were calculated and without any plan to address our broken firearms licensing system.

We have continually briefed MPs and ministers that increased unaccountable funding to the police based on “full cost recovery” will never cure the myriad problems with firearms licensing, and fundamental issues must be resolved first.

Thank you to the many readers who have supported our campaign on this and for sharing your MPs’ responses. This is critical information and every interaction counts. We said we would use data to hold the police and Government to account for the unfair and unjustified fee rises.

In January, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) published the first league table of firearms licensing departments’ performance in England and Wales, with a commitment to produce quarterly updates from the National Firearms Licensing Management System. Further reports followed in July and October, published in an obscure area of the NPCC website and without any publicity.

We have seen and reviewed the data and, apart from Avon & Somerset Police and Nottinghamshire Police, average turnaround times for applications received in the past 12 months have worsened for all forces. There are several other metrics in the reports for each force, including the percentage of applications received in the past 12 months having been completed within four months.

Looking across all the metrics, the performance of the following forces give us particular cause for concern: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Dorset, Durham, Hertfordshire, Humberside, Metropolitan, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumbria, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, West Midlands and West Yorkshire.

The disparity in performance between forces is massive. Avon & Somerset are now processing applications within an average of 59 days – five days faster than nine months ago – whereas Humberside are taking 149 days; 102 days longer. Cheshire, Cleveland and Lincolnshire are consistently processing 99% of applications within four months, whereas Humberside languishes at 26%.

These figures do not even include applications that were submitted more than a year ago and have not been processed. Around a quarter of licensing departments have such applications outstanding, with the longest BASC is aware of still not resolved after three years. If these applications were included in the figures, the results would be worse. It was claimed the fee increase would fund system improvements and for many forces that is clearly not happening.

Inconsistencies between forces, extreme delays and unclear decision-making need to be resolved. Yet instead we face a Home Office consultation on proposals to merge the shotgun and firearms licensing systems, which will make things considerably worse.

On a positive note, many forces are improving their service and BASC recently met the new Policing Minister Sarah Jones (News, p6), who was receptive to our concerns about the current situation and how disastrous changing shotgun licensing rules would be. It will be a test of the minister’s determination to resist the direction of travel and act on our concerns.

If the consultation does go ahead, it will be a test of our collective resolve to scupper any damaging proposals and a massive response will be needed to make a difference. Please do one thing now to ensure you are our first line of defence.

Firearms licensing performance data shows average turnaround times are getting worse, despite a hike in fees, says Conor O’Gorman

“Do one thing now to ensure you are our first line of defence”

More money for a poorer service