Cumbria Police reduces its firearms licensing backlog

Cumbria Police has made significant progress in clearing firearms licensing delays after a series of meetings with BASC. The force has announced that it has successfully cleared a backlog of 1,796 non-complex firearms applications. 

The news follows a series of productive meetings between senior officers in Cumbria and BASC. An initial meeting earlier this year with the Chief Constable of Cumbria Constabulary, Rob Carden, resulted in a commitment to provide additional resources to firearms licensing in the area. 

In May, BASC head of firearms Martin Parker met with Superintendent Andy Wilkinson and Chief Inspector Lee Skelton, when he was reassured that the force was on track to cut the backlog and issue grants and renewals within 17 weeks. 

Cumbria Police has since announced it is committed to processing all new non-complex renewals within eight weeks, and non-complex grants within 12 weeks. 

Mr Parker said: “Cumbria Police deserves to be commended for the efforts it has made to cut the backlog and improve the licensing process. We are grateful for the considerable effort he [Chief Constable Carden] has made and welcome his assurance to licence holders that delays are a thing of the past. We hope that Cumbria will serve as an example to other police forces on how to tackle delays.”