Home Office passes firearms licensing delays back to police chiefs

The Home Office has told peers that firearms licensing delays are a matter for individual police forces, and confirmed it holds no central data on how long certificate renewals take. The answers, published on 20 July to written questions from Lord Swire, leave responsibility for processing performance in England and Wales with chief constables and police and crime commissioners.

What did the Home Office say about licensing delays?

Long waits for grants and renewals have dogged the licensing system for several years, with shooting organisations reporting members left without valid certificates through no fault of their own while renewals sit in force queues.

Home Office minister Lord Hanson of Flint said processing times and the resources allocated to licensing “are matters for individual Chief Officers of Police and Police and Crime Commissioners”. He also confirmed that the department “has not routinely collected data on the time taken… to renew shotgun and firearms licences by police forces over the past five years”.

Lord Swire had asked whether the Government would consider ranking forces by processing speed, so applicants could see how their force compares. The answers offered no commitment to do so.

What is the four-month target?

Lord Hanson pointed to the quarterly performance data now published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, which includes a new performance target for forces to complete applications for the grant or renewal of firearm and shotgun certificates within four months of receipt. The target was introduced alongside the quarterly publication after sustained pressure from shooting and trade organisations for transparency on force-by-force performance.

The NPCC’s first-quarter figures for 2026-27, which would show whether forces are meeting that target, had not been published when this story was written.

Why do the answers matter now?

Certificate holders are paying more for a service Whitehall says it does not monitor centrally. Fees were raised on 5 February 2025 to achieve “full cost recovery” and, Lord Hanson confirmed, “increased again on 6 June this year by the rate of inflation”.

The Home Office’s annual bulletin, published in June, showed shotgun certificates at their lowest level since records began in 2007, with firearm certificates at their lowest since 2009.

What happens next

Parliament has risen for the summer, with the Commons back on 1 September, when the new Home Office ministerial team under Prime Minister Andy Burnham will inherit the licensing file. A separate written question on authorised firearms officer numbers, tabled by Sarah Pochin MP on 1 July, remains unanswered. The full answers are on the UK Parliament written questions site.