BASC publishes most comprehensive firearms licensing report to date

[Conor O'Gorman]

BASC has published a major new report reviewing the performance of police firearms licensing departments in England and Wales.

The report – The Performance of Police Firearms Licensing Departments in England and Wales 2025 – is the most detailed and wide-ranging of its kind. It combines data from more than 5,000 certificate holders, Freedom of Information responses from 41 of 42 police forces, and official figures from the Home Office and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

The findings offer a snapshot of a firearms licensing system that remains deeply inconsistent in its delivery. The report identifies forces that are providing a timely and proportionate service, and others that are falling well short of expectations.

BASC publishes most comprehensive firearms licensing report to date

BASC has published a major new report reviewing the performance of police firearms licensing departments in England and Wales.

basc.org.uk

Coverage in The Telegraph below:

Shotgun owners forced to wait a year for new licences

Applying for certificates has become ‘postcode lottery’ as more than 1,000 owners made to put their guns in storage

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Heym SR20]

Thanks for doing this. Why is Scotland not covered as well. Mind you my experience of Police Scotland both as an individual FAC, SC and AW holder, as a referee and as an officer of an approved rifle club has generally been good. There were some individual FEOs in the past who were somewhat pedantic, but they are now long retired, and current staff are thorough in their questioning, but wholly reasonable polite and a pleasure to deal with.

 

[Elshad]

Thanks for doing this. Why is Scotland not covered as well. Mind you my experience of Police Scotland both as an individual FAC, SC and AW holder, as a referee and as an officer of an approved rifle club has generally been good. There were some individual FEOs in the past who were somewhat pedantic, but they are now long retired, and current staff are thorough in their questioning, but wholly reasonable polite and a pleasure to deal with.

Agree, there is no reason not to include Scotland which has the same licensing system with the exception of air weapons

 

[Elshad]

I’m also not sure this is entirely true with regards to the Met, my FEO is a civilian and not a warranted officer.

 

[Conor O'Gorman]

Thanks for doing this. Why is Scotland not covered as well. Mind you my experience of Police Scotland both as an individual FAC, SC and AW holder, as a referee and as an officer of an approved rifle club has generally been good. There were some individual FEOs in the past who were somewhat pedantic, but they are now long retired, and current staff are thorough in their questioning, but wholly reasonable polite and a pleasure to deal with.

As explained in the report: "Scotland has a different firearms licensing management system and uses warranted officers as FEOs. It is therefore not comparable with the rest of England and Wales, although it is included in the satisfaction survey results. Northern Ireland has a different licensing system and firearms laws and is not included in the report".

https://basc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/GB%20Firearms%20Licensing%20Report%202025.pdf

The latest statistics for firearms licensing in Scotland make for interesting reading with over 97% of shotgun, firearm and air weapon certificate renewals being issued by Police Scotland within 16 weeks.

Contrast that to forces in England and Wales, with Bedfordshire, Cambridge and Hertfordshire only managing 39%, 32% and 35% respectively to process applications within 4 months, and most other forces in the 60-90% range.

As of 31 March 2025, there were 43,790 shotgun certificates, 31,598 air weapon certificates and 25,223 firearm certificates on issue in Scotland and those numbers have remained stable over the last 5 years.

This is in stark contrast to the year-on-year declines in England and Wales where firearm certificate holders have dropped from 156,033 in 2021 to 145,306 in 2025, and shotgun certificate holders have dropped from 548,521 in 2021 to 482,612 in 2025.

The above has been reported in today's Shooting Times.

Fighting for Firearms

Explore Fighting For Firearms with Shooting UK. Get the latest shooting and gundog news, expert analysis, and field updates from across the UK.

www.shootinguk.co.uk

 

[Apthorpe]

This is an excellent body of work, which has doubtless required a lotnof effort and persistence by those concerned at BASC. Many thanks for that. This is first class!
Only comment is that it is disappointing that it includes no criticism of the way the time taken targets have been sneakily lengthened by 100% by the NPCC. 8 weeks/56 days is the proper deadline.
I presume the purpose of the large amount of valuable work BASC does on this topic is that it is intended to drive an improvement in police performance. It would be regrettable if it ended up condoning continued failure and institutionalising a severe downgrade of police service.

 

[royalewithcheese]

@Conor O'Gorman im not sure the staffing numbers for Beds/Cambs/Herts are correct, maybe its based off an old FOI? According to the PCC/CC accountability meetings, they increased it from 25 odd FTE staff in 2023 to 35 odd in 2024, to 50 odd in 2025

 

[Pine Marten]

Just to save time, if anyone was going to say any of these things, they are taken as said so no need to spend time on it: "Bloody BASC, you would say that wouldn't you, selling us all down the river, I've left although actually I was never a member, why dont all the organisations join together and focus on specifically just what I want with no compromise whatsoever, but I don't want to join because it costs money and I don't need insurance anyway. Nice crisps though".

 

[enfieldspares]

Just to save time, if anyone was going to say any of these things, they are taken as said so no need to spend time on it: "Bloody BASC, you would say that wouldn't you, selling us all down the river, I've left although actually I was never a member, why dont all the organisations join together and focus on specifically just what I want with no compromise whatsoever, but I don't want to join because it costs money and I don't need insurance anyway. Nice crisps though".

I'm sorry. I didn't quite get that. Can you repeat it please but with CAPS LOCK key on?

 

[Pine Marten]

I'm sorry. I didn't quite get that. Can you repeat it please but with CAPS LOCK key on?

Of course.

"I WANT EVERYTHING TO BE EXACTLY THE WAY THAT SUITS ME AND LIKE IT WAS IN AN IMAGINARY PAST WITH NO EFFORT FROM MYSELF".

 

[cjm1066]

A very important report, let's see it repeated and soon become unnecessary.

 

[Mr. Gain]

Of course.

"I WANT EVERYTHING TO BE EXACTLY THE WAY THAT SUITS ME AND LIKE IT WAS IN AN IMAGINARY PAST WITH NO EFFORT FROM MYSELF".

Now do it as a bumper sticker - you'll be minted in no time.

 

[Conor O'Gorman]

@Conor O'Gorman im not sure the staffing numbers for Beds/Cambs/Herts are correct, maybe its based off an old FOI? According to the PCC/CC accountability meetings, they increased it from 25 odd FTE staff in 2023 to 35 odd in 2024, to 50 odd in 2025

Thanks, I think it will be based off an FOI last year. There is a caveat at the start of the report that "As with any report of this nature, information can be either incomplete, outdated or incorrectly recorded." Hopefully we will see an improvement in that combined FLD based on all this investment in resources and more effective use of those resources as per the PCC/CC accountability meetings.

 

[webley701]

As has been said above - ‘a very important report’.

Well done.

 

[Conor O'Gorman]

I’m also not sure this is entirely true with regards to the Met, my FEO is a civilian and not a warranted officer.

Thanks, I will pass on your feedback.

 

[Dalua]

I still think it's a bit weird that 'consistency' is held up as such a virtue. I quote: 'Inconsistency, not capacity, drives poor performance' - what does that mean? Are the poorly-performing constabularies inconsistent in some way in their approach, and this causes them to perform badly? Or is is simply meant that there are good and bad FLDs - and the bad ones do things differently from the good ones - so the problem is inconsistency? Because that doesn't make sense, to me at least.

'Call for national consistency' presumably means not just nationally-enforceable performance standards - but nationally-enforceable good performance standards

I think the point they're trying to make is that some FLDs work efficiently most of the time - thus pleasing their certificate-holders by their fairness and swift performance. These FLDs are consistently good.
Other FLDs work less-efficiently most of the time and perform badly, disappointing and inconveniencing their certificate-holders. These FLDs are presumably consistently bad.

The problem is not a want of consistency - the problem is that some FLDs are good and others are not.
We'd presumably like them all to be good - but consistency across the country would be equally-well served by their all being bad.

If we want them all to be good, then the good ones and the bad need to be examined for their procedures and attitudes at all levels so that the bad can become more like the good. There doesn't necessarily even need to be consistency of approach here - there are likely to be different ways of being a good FLD.

It's likely that's what BASC means. They just have a funny way of saying it.

As to the use of the statutory fees to fund the FLDs, I think that, being part of the 'full cost recovery' nonsense, is not something we should be concerning ourselves with. It seems to me simply to be a means to increase costs on shooters further based on the whims of government - without even having to involve medical practitioners!

 

[Conor O'Gorman]

A short video from the author of the report, Martin Parker, BASC Head of Firearms:

 

[Liveonce]

@Conor O'Gorman Nice work, however if the report is only for the benefit of us who shoot, then useful but no more than that what is the plan for the report to get wider attention? MPs, Chief Constables, PCCs, general public?

 

[royalewithcheese]

Thanks, I think it will be based off an FOI last year. There is a caveat at the start of the report that "As with any report of this nature, information can be either incomplete, outdated or incorrectly recorded." Hopefully we will see an improvement in that combined FLD based on all this investment in resources and more effective use of those resources as per the PCC/CC accountability meetings.

I did see the caveat, not knocking it at all, its a very comprehensive and good report, just thought its worth pointing out that there is some other publicly available information that may assist in your next version

 

[Heym SR20]

As explained in the report: "Scotland has a different firearms licensing management system and uses warranted officers as FEOs. It is therefore not comparable with the rest of England and Wales, although it is included in the satisfaction survey results. Northern Ireland has a different licensing system and firearms laws and is not included in the report".

https://basc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/GB%20Firearms%20Licensing%20Report%202025.pdf

The latest statistics for firearms licensing in Scotland make for interesting reading with over 97% of shotgun, firearm and air weapon certificate renewals being issued by Police Scotland within 16 weeks.

Contrast that to forces in England and Wales, with Bedfordshire, Cambridge and Hertfordshire only managing 39%, 32% and 35% respectively to process applications within 4 months, and most other forces in the 60-90% range.

As of 31 March 2025, there were 43,790 shotgun certificates, 31,598 air weapon certificates and 25,223 firearm certificates on issue in Scotland and those numbers have remained stable over the last 5 years.

This is in stark contrast to the year-on-year declines in England and Wales where firearm certificate holders have dropped from 156,033 in 2021 to 145,306 in 2025, and shotgun certificate holders have dropped from 548,521 in 2021 to 482,612 in 2025.

The above has been reported in today's Shooting Times.

Fighting for Firearms

Explore Fighting For Firearms with Shooting UK. Get the latest shooting and gundog news, expert analysis, and field updates from across the UK.

www.shootinguk.co.uk

Thanks Conor, I had just read the summary, not the whole report. Please don’t every one that Scotland has a really good licensing system. I Whilst the English Hunters are very welcome to come and visit we don’t want them completely swamping us.