BASC Licensing Division Figures for Scotland and NI (2019)

[AltogetherElsewhere]

Hey all,

In light of the recently released Licensing Division league table published by BASC, a few folks noted the absence of information for Police Scotland and PSNI.

So, I put in a request with BASC (and did a little number crunching of my own) purely for personal edification! The responses I received was interesting. Apparently, PSNI and Police Scotland use a different piece of Firearms Licensing software (called 'Shogun'), which does not have all the same categories/figures as those possessed by the rest of the country's police forces.

Police Scotland

Police Scotland's self-claimed figures put their FAC/SGC grant time at an average of 16 weeks from date of application - that's 112 days. I have no idea if that includes the new(ish) Air Gun Certificates. Variations are described as "as soon as is reasonably practical" and renewals as; some time "before the expiry of the current certificate", but no figures are given. Visitors permits and EU Firearms Passes take 6 weeks from the date of application.

Police Service of Northern Ireland

The PSNI figures are published on their website, (annoyingly) in a month-by-month format without any option of totals or averages. So, to save everyone the effort, I racked my rather slow brain and found my calculator, and crunched the numbers. Bear in mind that Air Guns and Shotguns are all kept on Firearm Certificates. There is no SGC category in NI. The following are averages based on the entire year:

FAC Grant: 83 days (avg)
FAC Variation: 32 days (avg)
FAC Renewal: 14 days (avg)

Hope you found this helpful! I can forward the emails if anyone wants a source.

Cheers!

[ovenpaa]

Thank you for reporting this, would you mind if I quoted these figures elsewhere?

[Polchraine]

In rough terms, PSNI is about similar to the English & Welsh average for Grant and maybe slightly better for Variations. With renewals at 14 days, it puts most of England & Wales to shame.

[AltogetherElsewhere]

Thank you for reporting this, would you mind if I quoted these figures elsewhere?

No worries, mate.

In rough terms, PSNI is about similar to the English & Welsh average for Grant and maybe slightly better for Variations. With renewals at 14 days, it puts most of England & Wales to shame.

14 days did seem very fast, but that's the number I got!