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You would think that right now is not a very good time to be contacting your Doctor asking for a letter to say you are fit and might not be a danger to the public .

But not in Merseyside .Every FAC and SGC renewal must now have a new letter from your Doctor .

If you changed Doctors last year and got a letter from him , and your cert is due for renewal this year , you will have to get another letter from your Doctor .

And if you dont get the Doctors letter in the the Firearms Registry within 7 days of your renewal application being received , you get refunded and your application cancelled .

Any other police forces doing this , or is it just Merseyside being prats ?

Yep Essex is following that process.

MistAgain wrote: Any other police forces doing this , or is it just Merseyside being prats ?

Many are.

To my knowledge, as mentioned Essex, but also, Kent, Surrey/Sussex, TVP, Herts/Beds/Cambs, effectively all the forces surrounding the Met.Police, but the Met Police doesn't. Plus Wales and Scotland, and I believe 2 or 3 others (Lincs?)

Yep Kent are. But, they have also taken the stance that GPs are very busy and under tremendous workloads, so when submitting your renewal application confirm that the doctors letter has been applied for and they will not stall your application.

Nope.

Not Cleveland.

All these tiny little inconveniences just keep adding up, we're always stepping back, a small pace at a time. One "progressive" force tries something and gets away with it and another soon follow suit.
It'll not be long before a force decides that a doctors letter is not enough - we just need it countersigned by a psychiatrist for another £100.

Don't forget that if your own doctor won't play ball and supply the letter for supposed ethical reasons or conscientious objections, or they simply demand an outrageous fee you can go to one of the medical companies that will do so for a more reasonable fee. The major shooting organisations can supply the details of these companies or of doctors who are more sympathetic to shooting sports.

Chapuis wrote:Don't forget that if your own doctor won't play ball and supply the letter for supposed ethical reasons or conscientious objections, or they simply demand an outrageous fee you can go to one of the medical companies that will do so for a more reasonable fee. The major shooting organisations can supply the details of these companies or of doctors who are more sympathetic to shooting sports.

If I had any issues this is the way I would go they charge reasonable fees and get results. Fortunately I was advised by my licencing department that they would contact my Doctor and get the necessary information and I didn't need to do any thing.

I can confirm Hertfordshire/Bedfordshire/Cambridgeshire require them. Fortunately for me my Dr isn't a problem (£75 Renewal, £100 Grant fee), but two memebers of my local club have had to go the alternative route of trying to get the report complied outside of their registered surgeries as their doctors have refused to do them.

Cheshire do it as well, my doctors wanted £125 so I went the route of getting my records and sending them to a doctor that does them, but getting my records took 3+ months but this was last year so understandable.