Firearms Certificate Holders

1. How many firearms certificate-holders were registered with the force at November 1, 2010?
2. How many of these certificate-holders had criminal records at November 1, 2010?
3. How many of these certificate-holders at November 1, 2010, had a criminal record which included one or more suspended prison terms?
4. How many of these certificate-holders at November 1, 2010, had been given a suspended prison term since November 1, 2005?
5. Between November 1, 2008 and November 1, 2010, how many people had their firearms certificates revoked because of...

(a) their commission of criminal offences?
(b) concerns that they had "intemperate habits" or were of unsound mind?
(c) other reasons (please specify)?

Would it be possible to clarify my request?

It has just come to my attention that shotguns are not covered under firearms certificates.

Would it be possible, therefore, to receive the information for both firearms certificates and shotgun certificates?

In accordance with section 1 (1) (a) of the Act our response is provided below;

From our preliminary assessment, we estimate that compliance with your request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000. This is currently £450. The reason for this is that to answer questions 2 onwards would require a manual search of some 14,000 files as the information is not held on the National Firearms Licensing Management System. Such a search would probably take one member of staff approximately 18 days

This would clearly exceed the appropriate limit.

The appropriate limit is defined in the Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004, which is covered by statutory Instrument Number 3244 of 2004. Furthermore, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse to respond to a request for information where the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit as defined by the above mentioned regulations.

I am unable to offer a suggestion that could bring your request within the cost limits and provide meaningful statistics relating to your questions. If its any help to you I can say that the Home Office publish statistical information annually. You may wish to view the following web pages:

Home Office Statistical Information