Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with Scotland Yard on strengthening legislation on the sale of starter guns.

We are not currently looking to strengthen legislation in relation to the sale of starting guns.

A person must be registered with the police as a firearms dealer before they can sell firearms by way of trade or business, and a person requires a firearms certificate issued by the police before they can purchase a small firearm for the purposes of starting races at athletic meetings. Such certificates will be conditioned accordingly and will only authorise the use of blank ammunition. Only those starters who are qualified up to a certain level under the UK Athletics grading structure should be granted such a certificate.

Starters of swimming, cycling and other races have no need of working firearms and may use starting pistols which can only fire blank ammunition. Such starting pistols do not have an open barrel, so they are not classed as firearms and are not subject to certification.