Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to increase the fees for firearms licences to ensure that the cost of administering the system is covered by the charges.

Fees for firearm and shotgun licences administered by the police were last increased in 2015 so that more of the cost of licensing would be recovered. The fees are currently being reviewed.

The Government introduced measures, through the Policing and Crime Act 2017, to enable new fees for firearm licences administered by the Home Office and Scottish Government to be set on a cost recovery basis. These were the subject of a public consultation which ran from 12 January to 9 March. We are carefully considering the responses.