Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the time taken to process shotgun licence renewals in (a) rural areas and (b) West Dorset constituency.

The issuing of firearms certificates, resourcing of firearms licensing teams and the efficiency of police forces is a matter for individual Chief Officers of Police and Police and Crime Commissioners.

The Government has recently taken action to increase the fees for firearms and shotgun applications that can be charged by police forces. On 5 February 2025, increased fees came into effect to provide full-cost recovery for firearms licensing applications processed by police forces. The extra income from fees will help police forces to better resource and train their firearms licensing teams. This was the first increase in fees for 10 years and the Government will conduct more regular reviews of fees in the future.

In the interests of consistency and transparency, the National Policing Chiefs Council (NPCC) Lead for Firearms Licensing has also for the first time published performance data for firearms licensing teams in all police forces. This includes the performance target for forces to complete applications for the grant or renewal of firearm and shotgun certificates within four months. This data is now being published by the NPCC on a quarterly basis.