The government has tabled its own amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill at Report Stage, which will remove sound moderators from their current status of Section 1 firearm. This follows the amendment tabled by Lord Brady of Altrincham and prepared by the Countryside Alliance which received wide, cross-party support from peers when it was considered at the previous stage of the Bill.
Lord Hanson of Flint, the government’s Home Office minister in the House of Lords, said in his explanatory note to the amendment:
“This amendment removes sound moderators and flash suppressors from the definitions of “firearm” and “shot gun” in the Firearms Act 1968 and creates an offence of possessing a sound moderator or flash suppressor without having a valid firearm or shotgun certificate, or without an exemption applying.”
This aligns with the government’s June 2025 proposal to deregulate sound moderators “when parliamentary time allows” – we have found that time.
Short of full deregulation, this welcome amendment will have the effect of alleviating police firearms licensing departments of a huge and unnecessary administrative burden, whilst allowing legitimate users of sound moderators to buy and sell them without having to proceed through the cumbersome, costly and time consuming variation process – all of this with zero increase in risk to public safety.
The government’s proposed new law will make it an offence to possess a sound moderator for a Section 1 firearm without also possessing either a firearms certificate or shotgun certificate. It will not be an offence to possess a sound moderator designed for firearms excepted from Section 1 of the Firearms Act 1968, i.e. Section 2 shotguns and sub 12 ft lbs air rifles, without a firearms certificate or shotgun certificate. This level of deregulation is exactly in line with the government’s June 2025 proposals.
The Crime and Policing Bill’s Report Stage will commence on 25 February and the Bill is expected to finally pass into legislation at some point before the King’s Speech at the state opening of parliament in mid-May 2026. Until this amendment passes into law sound moderators remain defined as Section 1 firearms.