Firearms Certificate Statistics, Scotland, March 2014

3. Background

It should be noted that amendments to firearm regulations in January 1995 increased the validity period of firearm and shotgun certificates from three to five years. This effectively meant that there were no certificate renewals in either 1998 or 1999 and this in turn has had a cyclical effect of increasing the number of certificate renewals, cancellations and certificates on issue in certain years, whilst reducing the number in the intervening years.

The statistics on firearm certificates are used to inform National Outcome 9 - 'we live our lives safe from crime, disorder and danger' as well as The Strategy for Justice in Scotland. These statistics are also used by a wide range of stakeholders to monitor trends, for policy research and development, and for research purposes.

The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 changed the policing landscape in Scotland, replacing the previous eight police forces, the Scottish Police Services Authority and the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency from 1 April 2013. Police Scotland is now responsible for operational policing in Scotland and is held to account by the Scottish Police Authority.

Following the establishment of Police Scotland, a national SHOGUN firearms licensing system has been developed. The national SHOGUN system will become operational in October 2014. Due to the nature of the SHOGUN system, once the national system is introduced it will only be possible to provide statistics on the number of firearm and shotgun certificates at a national level, with no regional or geographic breakdowns being available. As a consequence, the data in this bulletin are presented on a national level only.

In addition, the new system will only be able to recover statistics from the point of introduction onwards. The national SHOGUN system will have to be running for 12 months before complete statistics on the number of firearm and shotgun certificates will be available. In the interim period, the system will only be able to provide headline statistics on the number of firearm and shotgun certificates at a given time. This means that for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 bulletins, only headline statistics for the number of firearm and shotgun certificates will be available.