Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the process is for estimating costs to (a) the police and (b) her Department for the grant and renewal of authorities under section 5 of the Firearms Act 1968.

The Government set out the process for estimating costs to the police and the Home Office for the grant, renewal and variation of section 5 licences in the impact assessment accompanying the consultation on firearms fees, which was published on 12 January. The impact assessment explains that the Home Office costs were calculated by assessing the full cost of the licensing firearms service, and then estimating the cost of each application type through a costing exercise that assessed the time taken for each application. Police costs were estimated based on the unit costs used to set new fees for police administered firearms licences in April 2015. The impact assessment is available on www.gov.uk