Firearms fees hike - why you should contact your MP now

[Conor O'Gorman]

In the wake of the government’s announcement on increases to firearms licensing fees, BASC has been asking members of the shooting community to urgently voice their concerns to their local MPs.

Contacting your MP can make a difference; the more emails MPs receive the more likely they are to go to the Home Office and say this is a mistake and that they must do better for shooting. This will strengthen BASC’s efforts to push the Home Office to take action and improve firearms licensing.

There are two key points you should make when contacting your MP:

• You are concerned whether the additional funds raised would be used to improve the work of firearms licensing departments. Regardless of the assurances, you remain sceptical as the government has no power to make this happen. It is up to the PCCs and the Chief Constable for each force to allocate funds.
• The fee increase was announced without consultation and there was no transparency or justification regarding the proposed figures. There is no way of knowing whether they are fair and proportionate.

If you prefer, you can use a template to contact your MP as follows:

Dear [insert MP name here]

I wish to raise with you the government’s proposals for increases to firearms licensing fees. As a firearms licence/shotgun certificate holder, I have significant concerns about the manner in which the changes, which amount to an average of a 133 per cent increase on current fees, have been tabled. 

The fees increase was announced without proper consultation and a complete lack of transparency. As such, the policy is damaging to the countryside, the shooting community and rural voters.

The government’s justification for the increase is that the extra funds raised will go to support improvements in the work of firearms licensing departments. This is misleading, as it has no powers to ensure this happens. It is the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and the Chief Constable for each force who are responsible for ensuring funds are allocated to firearms licensing departments. I seek assurances that income from any fees increase will be used to resource these teams.

[Insert any additional points you wish to make about the service you have received for firearms licensing here]

As a constituent, I urge you to raise this matter and the significant issues with the way in which it has been brought forward with the relevant Ministers on my behalf.

Please be aware that I will sending a copy of your response to the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) [, of which I am a member (include if you’re a member)].

I look forward to your response.

Kind regards,

[Your name]

However, I recommend personalising it as much as you can to avoid MPs receiving too many similar responses.

If your MP responds please forward that to politics@basc.org.uk 

[Fil]

Done. Cheers Conor. 

[Newbie to this]

I urge people.to add something along the lines of this

As certificate holders, we are now facing full cost recovery, effectively bearing the burden of a process that is necessitated not by us but by government and police requirements. While we understand the need for licensing to ensure safety and compliance, it is only fair to expect a timely and efficient service in return. This should include clear and enforceable deadlines for processing renewals and grants to avoid the undue stress and disruption currently experienced by many shooters.

 

 

[Conor O'Gorman]

1 hour ago, Fil said:

Done. Cheers Conor. 

Thanks!

1 hour ago, Newbie to this said:

I urge people.to add something along the lines of this

As certificate holders, we are now facing full cost recovery, effectively bearing the burden of a process that is necessitated not by us but by government and police requirements. While we understand the need for licensing to ensure safety and compliance, it is only fair to expect a timely and efficient service in return. This should include clear and enforceable deadlines for processing renewals and grants to avoid the undue stress and disruption currently experienced by many shooters.

 

 

That's an excellent précis.

[wymberley]

I did so immediately the figures were announced. Unfortunately, normal service has been resumed. My previous guy must have been an exception as he did everything that he said he would which achieved the desired result. For the last general election we had constituency boundary changes and my guy went to the more rural option and lost his seat. His replacement for my now revised constituency doesn't seem old enough to be a policeman let alone an MP and as yet has failed to respond. 

[eightlittlebits]

Sent this morning in NE Hampshire.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

20 minutes ago, wymberley said:

I did so immediately the figures were announced. Unfortunately, normal service has been resumed. My previous guy must have been an exception as he did everything that he said he would which achieved the desired result. For the last general election we had constituency boundary changes and my guy went to the more rural option and lost his seat. His replacement for my now revised constituency doesn't seem old enough to be a policeman let alone an MP and as yet has failed to respond. 

I have an extremely young new MP and all I get in reply is, "thank you for your email, I will get back to you when I get an answer", so all rather pointless I'm afraid.

[Conor O'Gorman]

Thanks @wymberley and @eightlittlebits for contacting your MP

@TIGHTCHOKE I appreciate it might feel futile as an individual but even with no response I am sure that the emails coming into that office will be noted and MP updated verbally by staffers. Multiply that across the country and that's a ripple that works its way into discussions between MPs and their staffers in the corridors of parliament and with enough fuss does influence statements and policy.

[AlistairB]

Sent

[Conor O'Gorman]

4 hours ago, AlistairB said:

Sent

Thanks!

[Conor O'Gorman]

BASC has put together a short survey to gather our various experiences of the renewal and/or grant application process with our local police force. Click the link below to take part. 

https://basc.org.uk/licensing-survey/

 

[BobbyH]

Ill do this tonight. This will be the first time i do it. Is it normal practice to contact your local MP with issues like this?

I had to google My local MP (James Wild - Conservative)

[Conor O'Gorman]

1 hour ago, BobbyH said:

Ill do this tonight. This will be the first time i do it. Is it normal practice to contact your local MP with issues like this?

I had to google My local MP (James Wild - Conservative)

Thanks, especially as it's your first time. Feel free to PM me with a draft if you wish. Yes, absolutely normal, MPs get all sorts of letters/emails from constituents about govt policies that impact them - this being one of them. Even a dozen letters on the same issue (if in people's own words - not auto-generated emails) does make a difference. 

[Gordon R]

BobbyH - good luck with your MP. I have written to ours a number of times, on some quite serious issues. I suspect the vast majority will do zilch.

 

[BobbyH]

Just now, Gordon R said:

BobbyH - good luck with your MP. I have written to ours a number of times, on some quite serious issues. I suspect the vast majority will do zilch.

 

Thanks mate, I’ll keep you all updated!

[Conor O'Gorman]

8 hours ago, BobbyH said:

Thanks mate, I’ll keep you all updated!

Many thanks.

[Shufti]

Done.

[Conor O'Gorman]

On 29/01/2025 at 21:23, Shufti said:

Done.

Thanks.

Contact with MPs is having an impact. MPs are joining forces to call on the Home Secretary to review the proposed fee increases and ensure police forces provide an efficient licensing service.

See for example two updates below:

https://www.kevinhollinrake.org.uk/news/mps-oppose-exorbitant-firearms-licence-fee-increases 

https://www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk/?p=4270 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Thank you Conor, I will get mine written and sent.  

[Conor O'Gorman]

A joint letter has been submitted to the Home Secretary from The Rt Hon Chris Philp MP Shadow Home Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Clifton Brown MP
Co-Chair of the APPG for Shooting and Conservation, Matt Vickers MP Shadow Minister for Police, Crime and Fire.

https://www.kevinhollinrake.org.uk/sites/www.kevinhollinrake.org.uk/files/2025-01/30 Jan Letter to the Home Secretary (2).pdf

Here are the co-signatories:

The Rt Hon Stuart Andrew MP
Peter Bedford MP
Sarah Bool MP
Aphra Brandreth MP
The Rt Hon Suella Braverman MP
The Rt Hon the Earl of Caithness
The Lord Carrington
John Cooper MP
The Rt Hon Geoffrey Cox KC MP
Gareth Davies MP
Charlie Dewhirst MP
The Rt Hon Mark Francois MP
Richard Fuller MP
The Rt Hon The Lord Garnier KC
The Lord Geddes
Andrew Griffith MP
The Rt Hon the Lord Hamilton of Epsom
Kevin Hollinrake MP
Sir Bernard Jenkin MP
Alicia Kearns MP
Danny Kruger MP
John Lamont MP
Alan Mak MP
The Baroness Mallalieu KC
Kit Malthouse MP
Robbie Moore MP
The Lord Pearson of Rannoch
The Rt Hon Mark Pritchard MP
Shivani Raja MP
Jack Rankin MP
David Reed MP
The Lord Robathan
Jim Shannon MP
Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst MP
The Earl of Shrewsbury DL
David Simmonds MP
Greg Smith MP
Patrick Spencer MP
Gregory Stafford MP
Blake Stephenson MP
Bradley Thomas MP
Nick Timothy MP
Martin Vickers MP
Helen Whately MP
The Rt Hon Sir John Whittingdale OBE MP
The Rt Hon Sir Jeremy Wright KC MP

 

Text of letter below:

The Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP
Home Secretary
The Home Office
2, Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

30 January 2025

Dear Yvette

Increase in firearms licensing fees

As Shadow Home Secretary and Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Shooting
and Conservation, we along with our colleagues are writing to you regarding the recent
announcement of an increase in firearms licensing fees.

These are hugely exorbitant increases for our constituents and will put pressure on hundreds
of thousands of people in rural communities who have already suffered under your
government’s choices. You are increasing a shotgun certificate grant from £79.50 to £194 –
244% of the current fee, while a shotgun certificate renewal will increase from £49 to £126 –
257% of today’s fee. Inflation since 2015 has been 35%, meaning your increases are up to a
disproportionate 4.5 times inflation. This is wholly unjustified and only adds insult to injury
for the hard-working people in rural communities whose livelihoods your government has
already threatened.

The APPG have worked on this issue for many years, meeting Ministers and civil servants
during the last government to progress matters. We regret that you did not think it
necessary to consult or inform MPs, including the co-chair of the APPG Ben Goldsborough
MP, before announcing the increase and laying the order before the House.
We hope that you will therefore be willing to meet colleagues who are members of the
APPG to discuss the issue. The next meeting, on the 11th March from 5-6 p.m. in committee
room M in Portcullis House, will be considering the increases. We would be most grateful if
you were able to attend this meeting.

You will be aware of the gross inefficiencies in firearms licensing and the fact that those
applying for a certificate in a quarter of licensing authorities may have to wait up to two
years for their applications to be processed. This is appalling service. Moreover, under
resourced and overworked departments compromise public safety, the fundamental
purpose of firearms licensing.

The representations we have received from those who shoot focus on the following points:
they wish to see an effective and efficient firearms licensing system. They accept increased
fees to full cost recovery, if the increase is based on consultation and transparent
calculations and is used to fund firearms licensing departments. They tell me that none of
these have been met.

The rise in fees to full cost recovery was included in the Labour manifesto to fund youth
counselling, but this was not the justification used in recent statements to the House or in
the papers accompanying the Statutory Instrument. You have repeatedly told parliament
that the increased fees will be used to properly fund firearms licensing.

The use of firearms licensing fees is an operational matter for the police. Police budgets are
set by Police and Crime Commissioners, not the Home Office. Although we are aware that
the indicative amount of money available to rural police forces next year will leave them no
choice but to make staff redundant. As far as we are aware, there are no ministerial powers
to ensure that fees are used in this way.

We would be grateful to know how you can be sure that the increased fees will go to
firearms licensing departments. Did you seek and receive any assurances from PCCs to this
effect?

We are also told that consultation with stakeholders was limited and perfunctory, in contrast
to the increase in fees in 2015, when a Home Office committee, comprising the police and
shooting organisations, came to an agreed set of figures for fees. In this case, a Home Office
Working Group met only twice, the last occasion in May 2023, and came to no conclusions.
Questions on process put to the Home Office at that point remain to be answered. We
understand that you refused to meet the shooting organisations in the months following the
election and finally granted them half an hour, two days before laying the order before
parliament.

We would be grateful if you could set out how you intend to work with stakeholders on
firearms licensing in the future.

The papers accompanying the order state that the new fees are based on data gathered
from the firearms licensing departments of thirty-one police forces, but nothing is publicly
available which shows the calculations on which the figures are based. We are told that the
number of forces involved must include inefficient licensing departments with the effect of
increasing the figure for full cost recovery. You will know that there is no consistency in the
amounts that firearms licensing departments spend on issuing a certificate. The BASC review
of licensing in 2022 found that it cost Warwickshire £90 to issue a certificate but for Durham
it cost £500.

We would therefore, in the interests of transparency, be grateful if you could let us know
how each new fee was calculated.

There are further issues on firearms licensing which remain to be resolved. These include:

• Removing sound moderators from the firearms licensing system, something supported by both the police and government, which would reduce the number of section 1 firearms by a third and thus reduce the workload for the police.
• Ending the use by some constabularies of non-statutory forms, reducing the burden on licensing departments.
• Ending superfluous land checks for section 1 firearms, reducing the burden on licensing departments.
• Ringfencing the income for firearms licensing fees for firearms licensing departments.
• Annual inflationary rises in fees, removing the need for massive increases, the latest averages 133%.

We look forward to working with you and your department to deliver an effective and
efficient firearms licensing system that protects public safety. We hope that you will be in
favour of continuing constructive engagement to that end.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Thank you for the full text.

[HantsRob]

Wow.

I wonder with the small list at the end of "and don't forget...." could actually massively impact on availability of staff to do other duties, meaning a faster turnaround.

 

I don't know who got that letter to that point, and so many sigs, but bravo. For whatever portion big or small, thanks to BASC and others who have written to their MPs and made a fuss!

 

Simply: noice.

[BobbyH]

Decent BASC, well done!!

My letter is being submitted tomorrow