Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect on freedom of speech of paragraph 3.10 of the Statutory Guidance for Chief Officers of Police on Firearms Licensing issued in February.

We have not made an assessment of the impact on freedom of speech of paragraph 3.10 of the Statutory Guidance for Chief Officers of Police on firearms licensing. This paragraph sets out some of the factors to be considered by police forces when assessing the suitability of an individual to be granted a firearms certificate.

The Statutory Guidance was issued for the first time on 1 November 2021. Following a review undertaken by the Home Office after its first year of operation, a refreshed version of the Statutory Guidance was issued on 14 February 2023. There were no changes made to this particular paragraph. The factors highlighted in this paragraph are also based on earlier versions of the chapter on assessing suitability that appeared in the non-statutory Home Office guides. We will continue to keep the Statutory Guidance under review.