Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the current regulatory regime for antique firearms on their (a) use in crime and (b) modifications.

The UK has some of the toughest firearms legislation in the world and we keep the controls under constant review to keep the public safe.

Following a sharp increase in the criminal use of antique firearms, the Government introduced the Antique Firearms Regulations 2021, which provide a statutory definition of ‘antique firearm’ to clarify which firearms can safely be exempt from the controls and which should be subject to licensing. We took the opportunity to omit from that definition seven cartridges which had regularly featured in crime, making firearms chambered for use with those cartridges subject to licensing.

Antique firearms are not identified separately in official crime statistics. However, information provided by the National Ballistics Intelligence Service shows the following:

- there were two fatalities from obsolete calibre firearms in each year from 2017 to 2021 and one fatality so far in 2022;

- injuries involving obsolete calibre firearms (excluding suicides) were 15 in 2017, 13 in 2018, 9 in 2019, 7 in 2020, 6 in 2021, and 5 so far in 2022;

- obsolete calibre firearms recovered from crime or from suspicious circumstances were 87 in 2017, 75 in 2018, 77 in 2019, 83 in 2020, 84 in 2021, and 41 so far in 2022.

When making the 2021 Regulations, the Government committed to an annual review to consider the latest developments with the criminal use of antique firearms, and to a full review of the Regulations themselves every three years.

A first review of the criminal use of antique firearms has just been completed and identified no need to revise the controls further at this time. The position will be monitored and reviewed again next year, but we will not hesitate to act sooner should the need arise.

For a firearm to qualify as exempt from licensing control it must be possessed, sold or purchased as a curiosity or ornament. Ammunition cannot be similarly exempt and is subject to licensing. If an owner wanted to acquire ammunition for use with an antique firearm, the firearm would no longer qualify to be exempt as an antique and would revert to certificate controls.

Since antique firearms are exempt from most firearms controls, including the need for licensing, we do not hold figures on the trade in antique firearms nor the number currently in circulation.