Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of creating a single crossbow licensing authority for England and Wales.

The Government is actively considering the introduction of further controls around crossbows.

This follows a call for evidence on strengthening controls on crossbows on public safety grounds, which ran from 14 February to 9 April 2024, and tested ideas for whether there should be some form of licensing regime that would provide further controls on the use, ownership and supply of crossbows including whether sellers should be licensed in some way.

We will publish the Government’s response to the call for evidence shortly, which will include what action we intend to take.