Will the fees hike improve licensing?

There was a flurry of political activity on Wednesday, 15 January. In the morning, a written statement to the House of Commons was published on behalf of the Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson on firearms licensing fees. 

This statement explained that the Government would be laying a statutory instrument before Parliament to “increase firearms licensing fees to provide full-cost recovery for police forces” and that “the increased fees will support police forces to provide an improved service to firearms applicants, through better resourced and trained licensing teams”. 

Around lunchtime, the Home Office published details of the new fee increases, which ranged from a 111% rise for firearm certificate renewals to a 157% rise for shotgun certificate renewals – with an average 133% increase across all categories — far exceeding the rate of inflation. 

The highest increase in absolute terms was for firearms dealer registrations, rising from £200 to £466, which will now be required every three years. Many registered firearms dealers are sole traders and this will hit them particularly hard. The fees that will affect most people are for shotgun and firearm certificate renewals, which will now be £131 and £126 respectively. A coterminus renewal will cost £155, while a variation will cost £47 (“like-for-like” variations will remain free). 

Consultation 

As I explained previously (Why jumping the gun on fees is wrong, 15 January), the last fee increase in 2015 arose from a considered and consultative approach. This is in stark contrast to the absence of any stakeholder or public consultation on proposed fees this time around. 

Even police forces were blindsided by the fees announcement and have since been rushing to update their websites and processes, while also dealing with numerous queries from people nearing their renewal window, hoping to get payments in before the rises take effect. 

It’s an outrageous and completely unnecessary way for a few individuals in the Home Office and the Government to treat civil servants and citizens. The ripples from this decision risk further alienating people working and living in rural areas, making it more difficult for rural Labour MPs to hold their seats. 

As things stand, more than a quarter of police forces are taking between one and two years to process licensing applications — delays that would be unacceptable for passports or driving licences. So how and when will the increased revenue from licensing fees make a difference to turnaround times, as promised by the Government? 

The short answer is that the Government has no power to enforce its wishes in matters of operational independence, such as police budgeting. It will be the police and crime commissioners (PCC) and chief constables who decide how to allocate their policing budgets. Remember, firearms licensing payments are made directly to your PCC, and “he who pays the piper calls the tune”. With that in mind, BASC has written to every PCC in England and Wales seeking assurances that funds raised from increased firearms licensing fees will be used to resource their firearms licensing departments. 

Underperforming police forces, when challenged, typically complain about a lack of funding to deliver an efficient and effective firearms licensing service. The Government claims that the fee rises represent “full-cost recovery”. This is inaccurate, as the fees were not calculated solely based on the expenditure of the most efficient forces, but rather across the disparate efforts of 31 forces. 

Public safety 

Furthermore, firearms licensing is primarily undertaken for the preservation of public safety, so it follows that the public purse should bear a significant portion of its cost. This is not the public subsidising firearms certificate holders but investing in a regime that contributes to its own safety. Nonetheless, we will use these “full-cost recovery” increases as a tool to hold them to account. 

There are no more excuses this time next year after millions more pounds have been received by police forces from shooters. And no more hiding places, either — the National Police Chiefs’ Council firearms lead, DCC David Gardner, is soon expected to publish a league table of firearms licensing departments’ performance in England and Wales. 

We have also asked forces if they have produced their strategic demand assessment (SDA) to ensure that their firearms licensing function is adequately resourced, and if so, when it will be published. This is a recommendation in the 2023 College of Policing’s 2023 authorised professional practice, and we are holding police forces to it. 

The inconsistencies in approach between forces remain stark. Martin Parker, BASC’s head of firearms, highlighted this to me as follows: “Days after the fees increase, Police Scotland were already writing to certificate holders who had received reminders that their certificate would expire in 16 weeks. The letter was to reassure people that so long as they submitted their application prior to 5 February, they would pay the current fee rather than the new fee. 

“Contrast this with Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Police, who were sending out reminders to certificate holders eight weeks prior to expiry, stating that it was unlikely that their certificate would be renewed before expiry, and that holders would be liable to five-year imprisonment and a £5,000 fine if they were in unlawful possession. 

“Sadly, it’s a long way for officers from Police Scotland to travel to the south-east of England to provide customer service training.” 

Fiefdoms 

Increased unaccountable funding to the police based on full-cost recovery will not cure our broken firearms licensing system. There are fundamental issues to resolve. Many firearms licensing departments continue to operate as fiefdoms, making up their own spurious rules outside Home Office guidance, wasting staff time and public money. GPs can opt out of their responsibility to place medical markers on certificate holders’ records, and some cynically predate on us with exorbitant fees up to £300. 

These are difficult and complex issues spanning several governments, but BASC is longer-lived and unwavering in its resolve to continue to push for reform.