Firearms Certificate Statistics, Scotland, March 2014

1. Introduction

This bulletin presents statistics on the number of firearm and shotgun certificates on issue under the Firearms Act 1968 (as amended), covering certificates issued by the police in Scotland over the last ten years. From 2014-15 onwards, statistics on firearm and shotgun certificates will be published for the end of a financial year instead of the end of a calendar year. The available data is as at March 2014, only three months since the previous bulletin.

In this bulletin, statistics for shotguns are shown separately from other firearms. The definitions of a firearm and of a shotgun are given in Section 5, along with regulations covering firearms licensing and further background information on the data presented in this bulletin. A related publication provides statistics on the number of crimes and offences involving the alleged use of a firearm. The National Statistics bulletin 'Recorded Crimes and Offences Involving Firearms, Scotland, 2012-13', was published in November 2013.

Chart 1: Number of firearm and shotgun certificates on issue in Scotland as at 31 December, 1980 to 2013 and as at 31 March 2014