Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of new medical procedures for firearm and shotgun licence applications, which were introduced in 2016.

As part of the arrangements introduced in 2016, the police write to the GP of those applying for a firearms licence to seek relevant information regarding the applicant’s medical and mental health before the licence is issued. These arrangements helped to improve information sharing between GPs and the police.

We are continuing to work with the police, the relevant medical bodies and others to assess whether further measures are required to ensure that we have, as far as possible, robust and consistent arrangements across all areas of the country. We have no plans to reconvene the Medical Evidence Working Group to assist with this work at the present time.