Norfolk firearms certificate backlog could run until 2028

Certificate holders in Norfolk and Suffolk may be waiting until 2028 for the two forces to clear their firearms certificate backlog, Norfolk’s police and crime commissioner has said. Colin Sutton, a month into the job after a by-election, put the joint licensing operation’s numbers on the record on 18 August, and they make hard reading for anyone with an application in.

Why will the backlog take until 2028?

The joint Norfolk and Suffolk licensing department has raised staffing by 27% and now makes 640 decisions a month, more than 30 on every working day. Demand needs 820.

That shortfall of 180 a month is the backlog, and nothing in the department’s present shape closes it. New software to speed up processing has been ordered but delayed, and will not be in place until June 2027.

“Without the new software, it is anticipated that the current backlog will not clear until 2028,” Mr Sutton said.

The money behind the delay

Mr Sutton was direct about the economics. “Even with the current staffing levels we incur a loss,” he said. “The cost to the constabularies of the current operation is £2.2m per year while the fees received are around £1m, so that is not a sustainable service model.”

That is a shortfall of £1.2m a year on a statutory duty, carried by two forces that between them manage about 38,000 firearm and shotgun certificates, one of the largest caseloads in England and Wales. The commissioner attributes the volume to the rural character of the counties and the shooting interests within them.

The bulge itself dates to the pandemic. Certificate periods were extended in 2021, which pushed a large cohort of renewals into the same window and set the surge to recur every five years. Mr Sutton has asked a gold group to find faster solutions and “to ensure we can flatten the bulge, so we do not get a repeat in 2031”.

How long is an applicant actually waiting?

Norfolk Constabulary’s own application pages are blunter than the commissioner’s statement. On a new grant the force says it is “currently taking up to 24 months to process new applications and grant a certificate”, and that applications needed for employment or professional reasons will be prioritised. On renewals it aims for 16 weeks.

Suffolk’s pages carry the same wording. Two years is not a wait a syndicate or a young shot coming into the sport can plan around.

What the national figures show

The National Police Chiefs’ Council’s (NPCC) latest quarterly data, covering the 12 months to 30 June, bears the commissioner’s account out. Norfolk completed 48.11% of applications within four months and Suffolk 24.41%, against 70.21% across England and Wales.

On new grants the gap is starker still, at 16.78% in Norfolk and 10.38% in Suffolk. Nor are the two forces leaning on temporary permits to mask it, issuing 63 between them across the year.

Shooting organisations were told something more hopeful only in January, when BASC East met Suffolk’s commissioner and senior officers from both forces. The association reported then that “with additional staff currently being recruited, it is anticipated that turnaround times will improve and backlogs will reduce over the next 12 months”. Seven months later the date being given is 2028.

What happens next

The software arrives in June 2027 and the commissioner’s projection runs a year beyond it. Neither Norfolk Constabulary nor Suffolk’s commissioner has commented, and no breakdown of the £2.2m figure or the staffing baseline behind the 27% has been published.

Certificate holders whose renewals fall inside the delay should get their applications in early. Where a renewal reaches the police at least eight weeks before the certificate expires and has not been decided, section 28B of the Firearms Act 1968 keeps the certificate in force for a further eight weeks. Anyone facing a longer wait should put it to the licensing department in writing, and to the commissioner’s office if that goes unanswered.