Firearm/Shotgun Licenses/Certificates - Grants and Renewals 2016 to 2020
Keywords
Firearm, Shotgun, Licenses, Licence, Certificate, Calendar Year, Grant, Renewal, Holders, Mental Health, Medical History, Internal Guidance, Criteria, Revoked.
Publication number
PUB 1157
FOI reference number
15409
Request title
Firearm/Shotgun Licenses
Date range
2016 to 2020
Information requested
1. How many firearm and shotgun certificates were issued in total in each of the following calendar years (if possible, please break this information down by new certificates and renewals):
a. 2016
b. 2017
c. 2018
d. 2019
e. 2020
2. How many firearm and shotgun certificates have been issued to holders who have declared a history of the following mental health issues identified in the statutory guidance for firearms licencing; anxiety, depression, suicidal thought or self-harm, acute stress-reaction or an acute reaction to the stress caused by trauma, mania, bipolar or a psychotic illness, a personality disorder or other mental health disorder, in each of the calendar years (if possible, please break this information down by new certificates and renewals):
a. 2016
b. 2017
c. 2018
d. 2019
e. 2020
3. How many firearm and shotgun certificates issued did NOT have the medical history declaration verified by a GP either because it was not requested or the GP did not respond in each of the following calendar years (If possible, please break this information down by new certificates and renewals):
a. 2016
b. 2017
c. 2018
d. 2019
e. 2020
4. Please could you provide a copy of your internal guidance to licensing officers on the criteria for issuing/renewing firearm and shotgun certificates. If this guidance has changed in the past 12 months, please could you provide a copy of both the previous guidance and the current guidance.
5. How many gun licenses were revoked on the basis of a change to the holder’s mental health – to include the following mental health issues identified in the statutory guidance for firearms licencing; anxiety, depression, suicidal thought or self-harm, acute stress-reaction or an acute reaction to the stress caused by trauma, mania, bipolar or a psychotic illness, a personality disorder or other mental health disorder, for each of the following calendar years:
a. 2016
b. 2017
c. 2018
d. 2019
e. 2020
6. Please provide the age of the youngest and the oldest holder of a firearm or shotgun certificate issued by your force.
Disclosure with exemptions
Partial Disclosure, Section 12
Information correct as at
04 March 2021
Date of disclosure
22 March 2021
Related documents
FOI 15409 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 Questions 2 and 5, 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 extracting the data and then reviewing each certificate holder’s personal record one by one to establish if it meets the criteria. 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:
1. How many firearm and shotgun certificates were issued in total in each of the following calendar years 2016 to 2020 (if possible, please break this information down by new certificates and renewals).
2016
|
GRANT |
RENEWAL |
||
|---|---|---|---|
|
FIREARM |
SHOTGUN |
FIREARM |
SHOTGUN |
|
243 |
785 |
981 |
3516 |
2017
|
GRANT |
RENEWAL |
||
|---|---|---|---|
|
FIREARM |
SHOTGUN |
FIREARM |
SHOTGUN |
|
200 |
768 |
1026 |
3450 |
2018
|
GRANT |
RENEWAL |
||
|---|---|---|---|
|
FIREARM |
SHOTGUN |
FIREARM |
SHOTGUN |
|
245 |
800 |
632 |
1663 |
2019
|
GRANT |
RENEWAL |
||
|---|---|---|---|
|
FIREARM |
SHOTGUN |
FIREARM |
SHOTGUN |
|
252 |
739 |
615 |
1754 |
2020
|
GRANT |
RENEWAL |
||
|---|---|---|---|
|
FIREARM |
SHOTGUN |
FIREARM |
SHOTGUN |
|
159 |
539 |
897 |
1913 |
3. How many firearm and shotgun certificates issued did NOT have the medical history declaration verified by a GP either because it was not requested or the GP did not respond in each of the following calendar years 2016 to 2020 (If possible, please break this information down by new certificates and renewals).
The Medical Screening Report (MSR) was introduced in Essex for new grants in November 2019 and for renewals in February 2020. Due to the pandemic we have issued some temporary permits to give the certificate holders more time to provide an MSR and to alleviate the pressure on the NHS. Since the introduction of MSR’s no certificate has been issued without an MSR.
4. Please could you provide a copy of your internal guidance to licensing officers on the criteria for issuing/renewing firearm and shotgun certificates. If this guidance has changed in the past 12 months, please could you provide a copy of both the previous guidance and the current guidance.
Please see below link to the Guide on Firearms Licensing Law document:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/firearms-law-guidance-to-the-police-2012
6. Please provide the age of the youngest and the oldest holder of a firearm or shotgun certificate issued by your force.
The youngest is 7 years old and the oldest is 99 years old.
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.