Countryside Alliance sets out red lines for the future of firearms licensing medical procedure

The Countryside Alliance has detailed the chaos currently gripping the medical procedures associated with firearms licensing. We understand that the Home Office may be about to attempt to impose a 'solution' on gun owners in the form of a fee to GPs for completing the initial medical records check and adding a marker to medical records. This will presumably be accompanied by a change in guidance to the police making it a requirement that an applicant's GP responds before a licence is issued.

While the Government appears to be prioritising pacifying GP's demands for a fee, there are far more important failings that need to be addressed. This process was agreed two years ago to improve public safety, and none of these improvements have been delivered. There can be no discussion of a fee until these problems have been resolved, or the shooting community will be left paying for a system that does not work.

For this reason, the Countryside Alliance is laying out five conditions which must be met before any discussions of a possible fee for the initial records check and the application of the marker.

1. Any medical procedure, and any agreed fee, must be consistently applied across England, Scotland and Wales, ending the current postcode lottery.


2. A mechanism must exist to ensure that GPs are applying the marker to applicant's medical records.


3. GPs must not be able to refuse to cooperate with the police in the discharge of the police's statutory duty under the Firearms Act 1968. Conscientious objection should only be allowed in those areas specifically recognised in law, as reflected in the terms of the NHS GP contract. This right to conscientious objection does not extend to private firearms ownership any more than to car ownership and the provision of medical evidence required by the DVLA.


4. If a fee is introduced, it must be a one-off cost for the applicant and reflect the independently-assessed cost of performing the initial check and applying the marker.


5. The introduction of an agreed system of continuous monitoring must lead to the implementation of a ten-year licence.

These five conditions have been communicated to Nick Hurd MP, the Home Office Minister responsible for making our firearms licensing system function. We will be updating members on the response we receive.

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