Is your Firearms Licensing Team providing a satisfactory service?

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by the Countryside Alliance has highlighted which police forces' firearms licensing departments are under-performing. A clear symptom of an inefficient licensing service is the issuing of large numbers of Section 7 Temporary Permits as a result of delays in processing licence renewals, so the Alliance asked all police forces how many of these permits had been issued over the last five years and how many are live now. In 2015 Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabularies (HMIC) published a report entitled 'Targeting the Risk', which revealed that seven out of the eleven forces questioned admitted their licensing teams were under pressure. We wanted to explore the extent of the issue to get a better understanding on how this was affecting our members.

The table below shows the results we received, broken down into how many Section 7 Temporary Permits were granted by each police force over the past five years. The forces have been ranked in descending order of how many were issued in the most recent year, 2015. A department failing to process a renewal in the allotted time will result in the police having to issue a Section 7 Temporary Permit, so if the number of permits granted are high it shows a failing service. A Temporary Permit will allow you to keep hold of Section 1 and 2 firearms and ammunition, but it will not allow you to hold, use or buy Section 5 firearms and ammunition (which includes expanding ammunition which is necessary by law for stalking deer). This inability to use authorised items because of the failure of the police is unacceptable, especially when you consider the results below of the high numbers of Temporary Permits granted last year.

The Countryside Alliance has sent letters to the Chief Constables of the six worst performing licensing departments, copied to the relevant Police and Crime Commissioners, Members of Parliament and Police and Crime Commissioner Candidates, asking what action is being taken to redress this situation and improve the service being provided to shooting community. We will keep our members informed as we receive responses.

Please Note - Not all Police Forces have responded to the FOI, and some refused to disclose the number of Section 7 Temporary Permits granted. If you are unhappy with this please do contact your force.

* For period 1 April 2015 - 31 March 2016