Firearm and Shotgun Licences – Received/Refused/Revoked/Returned 2010 to 2021
Keywords
Numbers, Firearms, Shotgun, Certificates, Licences, Licenses, Holders, Individuals, Applications, Refused, Doctor, General, Practitioner, GP, Decline, Medical, Information, Form, Granted, Revoked, Revocation, Returned, Reissued, Temporarily, Medical, Screening, Reports, MSR, Statutory, Guidance, Categories.
Publication Number
PUB 1250
FOI Reference Number
16066
Request Title
Firearm & Shotgun Licences – Received/Refused/Revoked/Returned
Date Range
2010 to 2021
Information Requested
Please consider this request for information relating to shotgun and firearms licences under the FOI Act.
1a How many firearms licence holders are there in your Police force area?
1b How many shotgun licence holders are there in your Police force area?
2a How many firearms licence applications did your Police force receive each year since 2010?
2b How many shotgun licence applications did your Police force receive each year since 2010?
3a How many firearms licence applications were refused by your Police force each year since 2010?
3b How many shotgun licence applications were refused by your Police force each year since 2010?
4a On how many occasions did GPs decline to complete a medical information form for shotgun and firearms licence applications? Please provide figures for each year since 2010.
4b How many applications were granted without a GP having completed a medical information form? Please provide figures for each year since 2010.
5a How many firearms licences were revoked by your Police force each year since 2010?
5b How many shotgun licences were revoked by your Police force each year since 2010?
6a How many firearms licences were returned by your Police force after having been temporarily revoked each year since 2010?
6b How many shotgun licences were returned by your Police force after having been temporarily revoked each year since 2010?
Disclosure with Exemptions
Part Disclosure with Section 12 and Section 17 Exemptions
Information Correct as at
13 September 2021
Date of Disclosure
15 September 2021
Related Documents/Links
Firearm certificates in England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
FOI 16066 Response
Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, however, the obligation of Section 1(1)(b) cannot be met as Essex Police does not hold all the information requested in a format that allows it to be retrieved within the time and cost limits of FOI.
When responding to a request for information under the terms of the FOIA, a public authority is not obliged to provide information if the authority estimates that the cost of the retrieval of the information requested would be in excess of £450 (equivalent to 18 hours work). The costs criteria relates to a request in its entirety, which means that if we cannot retrieve all of the information requested within the costs limit, we are not obliged to retrieve any of the information requested.
Section 12(1) of the FOIA states that a public authority is not obliged to:
“…comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.”
The following explanation outlines the difficulty Essex Police has in answering your request:
In relation to Question 4a, Essex Police are unable to accurately extract the level of detail in relation to your request for the requested period from our current systems. Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not primarily for the production of statistical information for FOI responses. This request would entail manually reviewing over 25,000 certificate holder’s records one by one to establish if the information is held. To establish if information is held would, therefore, exceed the time and cost limits under the FOIA and would qualify as the creation of data as the results cannot be processed by means of purely sorting or filtering data sources or running a database query tool. There is no requirement under the act to create data purely to answer FOI requests.
Consequently, and to this extent, Essex Police are exempt from the duty to provide information you have requested under the provisions of Section 12(1) of the FOIA. Therefore, and in accordance with Section 17(1) of the FOIA, this communication must act as a refusal notice to provide all of the information that could be interpreted as being captured by this part of your request.
Having said that and in an effort to assist, although excess cost removes the force’s obligations under the FOIA, Essex Police can confirm the following:
Caveats:
The data is correct as at 13 September 2021.
The data is presented in Calendar Years. The 2021 data is up to and including 13 September 2021.
1a How many firearms licence holders are there in your Police force area?
4979.
1b How many shotgun licence holders are there in your Police force area?
20048.
4b How many applications were granted without a GP having completed a medical information form? Please provide figures for each year since 2010.
Medical Screening Reports (MSR) were brought into force for Essex in April 2020 and there have been no certificates granted without an MSR.
6a How many firearms licences were returned by your Police force after having been temporarily revoked each year since 2010?
Not known.
6b How many shotgun licences were returned by your Police force after having been temporarily revoked each year since 2010?
Not known.
|
Year |
Applications Received |
Granted |
Refused |
Revoked |
Withdrawn |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
Firearms |
Shotguns |
|
|
2010 |
6094 |
5969 |
14 |
15 |
47 |
111 |
|
2011 |
6235 |
6087 |
28 |
9 |
36 |
119 |
|
2012 |
6452 |
6311 |
25 |
13 |
41 |
118 |
|
2013 |
3631 |
3450 |
30 |
14 |
61 |
151 |
|
2014 |
3371 |
3122 |
17 |
10 |
33 |
233 |
|
2015 |
5851 |
5419 |
28 |
7 |
21 |
403 |
|
2016 |
5998 |
5525 |
16 |
8 |
27 |
458 |
|
2017 |
5663 |
5444 |
24 |
5 |
16 |
195 |
|
2018 |
3553 |
3340 |
28 |
5 |
23 |
186 |
|
2019 |
3552 |
3360 |
32 |
10 |
22 |
162 |
|
2020 |
3906 |
3668 |
23 |
15 |
48 |
164 |
|
2021 (up to 13 September) |
3319 |
2795 |
1 |
4 |
18 |
123 |
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.
FOI Reference Number
16065
Request Title:
Firearm Licences & Shotgun Certificates - Revoked & Returned
Date Range
2015 to 2021
Information Requested
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from your police force. Please may you provide me with:
1. The number of firearms licenses revoked each year from 2015-2021 inclusive.
2. The number of firearms licenses returned after revocation each year from 2015-2021 inclusive.
3. The number of shotgun certificates revoked each year from 2015-2021 inclusive.
4. The number of shotgun certificates returned after revocation each year from 2015-2021 inclusive.
Disclosure with Exemptions
Full Disclosure
Information Correct as at
13 September 2021
Date of Disclosure
15 September 2021
Related Documents/Links
Firearm certificates in England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
FOI 16065 Response
Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, Essex Police can confirm in respect of Section 1(1)(b) the following data:
Caveats:
The data is correct as at 13 September 2021.
The data is presented in Calendar Years. The 2021 data is up to and including 13 September 2021.
1. The number of firearms licenses revoked each year from 2015-2021 inclusive.
|
2015 |
7 |
|---|---|
|
2016 |
8 |
|
2017 |
5 |
|
2018 |
5 |
|
2019 |
10 |
|
2020 |
15 |
|
2021 (up to 13 September) |
4 |
2. The number of firearms licenses returned after revocation each year from 2015-2021 inclusive.
|
2015 |
Not Known |
|---|---|
|
2016 |
0 |
|
2017 |
0 |
|
2018 |
0 |
|
2019 |
0 |
|
2020 |
0 |
|
2021 (up to 13 September) |
2 |
3. The number of shotgun certificates revoked each year from 2015-2021 inclusive.
|
2015 |
21 |
|---|---|
|
2016 |
27 |
|
2017 |
16 |
|
2018 |
23 |
|
2019 |
22 |
|
2020 |
48 |
|
2021 (up to 13 September) |
18 |
4. The number of shotgun certificates returned after revocation each year from 2015-2021 inclusive.
|
2015 |
Not Known |
|---|---|
|
2016 |
1 |
|
2017 |
2 |
|
2018 |
0 |
|
2019 |
2 |
|
2020 |
2 |
|
2021 (up to 13 September) |
2 |
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.
FOI Reference Number
16064
Request Title
Firearm Licences
Date Range
2019 to 2021
Information Requested
Initial Request
1) How many firearms licences were revoked by your constabulary in the years listed below?
|
2019 |
|
|---|---|
|
2020 |
|
|
2021 (year to date) |
2) How many firearms licences were reissued to individuals who had previously had their licences revoked?
|
2019 |
|
|---|---|
|
2020 |
|
|
2021 (year to date) |
3) In the statutory guidance to police forces it gives the categories listed in the table below as reasons why certificates are refused or revoked. Please list for each year detailed in the table how many licences were revoked (not refused) for each of the headings.
|
SUB HEADINGS FROM THE FIREARMS GUIDANCE TO FORCES |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 (YTD) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
(i) Affiliation or involvement in terrorism or proscribed groups or organisations; or aggressive, abusive or anti-social behaviour or incitement to hatred against particular groups categorised by, for example, race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age or religion; |
|||
|
(ii) affiliation with a serious organised crime group, or other involvement in serious organised crime; |
|||
|
(iii) affiliation with a gang, or other involvement in gang activities; |
|||
|
(iv) domestic violence or abuse; |
|||
|
(v) any other violence or credible threats of violence; |
|||
|
(vi) robbery or burglary; |
|||
|
(vii) criminal use of firearms or other offensive weapons; |
|||
|
(viii) sexual offences; |
|||
|
(ix) any of the above in relation to a family member or associate who lives at the address or has unsupervised access to the address. |
|||
|
(x) Other (please specify reason) |
Clarification Received
A couple of constabularies have asked me today to clarify whether I want to include shotgun licences in addition to firearms licences. The answer is yes!
Please can you provide the answers to the three questions I submitted yesterday for firearms AND shotgun licences under separate headings where possible.
Disclosure with Exemptions
Part Disclosure with Section 40(2) Exemption
Information Correct as at
13 September 2021
Date of Disclosure
15 September 2021
Related Documents/Links
Firearm certificates in England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
FOI 16064 Response
Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, Essex Police can confirm in respect of Section 1(1)(b) the following data:
Caveats:
The data is correct as at 13 September 2021.
The data is presented in Calendar Years. The 2021 data is up to and including 13 September 2021.
1) How many licences were revoked by your constabulary in the years listed below?
Firearms
|
2019 |
10 (9 of which were coterminous) |
|---|---|
|
2020 |
15 (14 of which were coterminous) |
|
2021 (up to 13 September) |
4 (3 of which were coterminous) |
Shotgun
|
2019 |
22 |
|---|---|
|
2020 |
48 |
|
2021 (up to 13 September) |
18 |
2) How many licences were reissued to individuals who had previously had their licences revoked?
Firearms
|
2019 |
0 |
|---|---|
|
2020 |
2 |
|
2021 (up to 13 September) |
0 |
Shotgun
|
2019 |
2 |
|---|---|
|
2020 |
4 |
|
2021 (up to 13 September) |
0 |
No further information will be provided by virtue of the following exemption:
Section 40(2) Personal Information
Providing a further breakdown of revoked licences by category may allow individuals to be identified.
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.