Sussex firearms licensing backlog leaves hundreds waiting months

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Rayland told police and crime commissioner Katy Bourne’s performance and accountability meeting this month that the force’s licensing team is preparing for a potential doubling of its workload. Sussex Police is recruiting more staff to carry out certificate checks as it works through a backlog of grants and renewals, Brighton and Hove News reported from the meeting.

How long are Sussex shooters waiting?

In the first six months of the year, just over half of applications were processed within the 120-day national guideline, against a force target of 80%. In the year to June the force handled 850 new firearm licences and 3,100 renewals.

Performance has since slipped further: in the year to the end of August, 27% of new licences were granted within 120 days, and about a quarter of renewals were processed in time.

ACC Rayland said the team was working through legacy cases while trying to keep newer applications within the 120-day requirement. “Once we have those plans, we are going to assess how we’re able to respond,” he said of the demand analysis now under way. “We know it’s coming. We’re looking at trying to address it and trying to manage the backlog demand.”

Why is the workload about to rise?

During the pandemic, licensing was quicker because much of the process ran online and fewer home visits took place. Every application and renewal now requires a home visit, and certificates granted in that period are falling due for renewal, so the force expects applications to soar next year.

Checks have also multiplied. ACC Rayland said each case now involves social media checks, visits to children and to everyone at the applicant’s address, and checks for any history of domestic abuse, all of which have made the process more complicated.

Mrs Bourne said Sussex has about 16,000 certificate holders, a high number for a single-county force: Thames Valley Police has about 20,000 across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. On the pandemic-era renewals bulge she said: “That’s where a few forces have come a cropper. They didn’t understand and were caught short.”

The national picture

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services found in August that firearms licensing across England and Wales was not fit for purpose and recommended a national licensing authority to replace the 43 force units, a reform BASC and the Countryside Alliance have long argued for.

What happens next

Sussex Police is analysing demand and says it will set out how it responds once that work is complete. Certificate holders whose renewals fall due in 2027 can expect the longest queues, and the standing advice across forces is to apply well before a certificate expires.