New firearm licensing fees to increase by up to 157%
Firearms licensing fees are being increased to achieve full-cost recovery for the police, in line with government’s manifesto commitment. This will support policing to provide more effective and efficient firearms licensing controls, helping them to safeguard the public from the misuse of licensed firearms and to provide a professional service to applicants.
The licensing of firearms and shotguns is administered by local police forces and requires a fee to be paid by applicants. The fees were last revised in 2015 and are now considerably below the cost of the service provided. Police forces are therefore having to subsidise their firearms licensing teams from other force budgets. HM Treasury guidance on Managing Public Money states that where a fee is charged for a licence the amount should normally reflect the full cost of the service provided.
The Home Office carried out a review to identify the full cost to the police of administering firearms licensing, using data collected from 31 police forces during January 2023. Analysis of the data shows that police costs are now over double the fees set in 2015.
The government’s manifesto committed to increase firearms licensing fees to achieve full-cost recovery for the police. This will help safeguard the public by providing police forces with extra income to better resource and train their firearms licensing teams, and to carry out thorough checks and continuous assessment of the suitability of applicants to possess firearms. Following the shootings in Keyham in August 2021, the Senior Coroner for the inquests into those who were killed made recommendations for improving firearms licensing controls, including that fees should be based on full-cost recovery and should include the costs of providing police licensing staff with improved training.
The fees can only be changed by means of secondary legislation and it falls to government to make any changes. Firearms fees are governed by the Firearms Act 1968. Section 43 enables the Secretary of State for the Home Department (Home Secretary) to amend the fees by order.
- Categories: National News, Other Misc
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