Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the implementation of the 2016 Home Office Guidance on firearms licensing.

The Home Office Guide on Firearms Licensing Law is intended to assist the police and other interested parties in applying and complying with firearms legislation. The guidance is underpinned by the publication of the Authorised Professional Practice for Firearms Licensing which was published in April 2014 through the College of Policing.

The guidance is currently under review so that all legislative amendments made to our firearms controls can be incorporated. A range of interested parties have been consulted about potential changes.

In addition, the Policing and Crime Act 2017 introduced a power to enable the Secretary of State to issue statutory guidance to the police on their firearms licensing functions. The Government has consulted on the introduction of this guidance, which will bring greater consistency to firearms licensing across England, Wales and Scotland. The Government will publish its response to the consultation and the statutory guidance in due course. Once published, the police will be required to have regard to the statutory guidance.