Proposed licence fee increase.

[VicW]

As reported in the Shooting Times,the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has proposed an increase in SGC and FAC licencing fees.The suggested fees are: Initial issue up from £50 to £93.80 an increase of 88%   Renewal up from £40 to £66 an increase of 65% I don't think these fees are excessive but to justify the increase I think that all Police Forces and Authorities must all follow the Home Office guidelines and sing from the same song sheet,which doesn't happen at the moment.The BASC are very active regarding this issue.The time taken to issue/renew certificates varies greatly across the country,some authorities seem to make up the rules as they go along and this is not good enough.So before the increases are approved surely the Home Office has got to ensure that the service improves to justify the proposed increase.Lincolnshire Police Force has recently introduced an e-mail service to advise of gun changes,a big improvement. Vic.

 

[TobyM]

10 year certificates would be a start!

 

[Fuzrat]

A longer length of certificate would be good, maybe 10 yrs between visits is a bit long, 5 would be good. If I remeber reading the press release right the increase isnt just a money grab but making the shooter pay for the bit that is subsidised by the general public (general public pays part of the licencing costs at the moment as it is "in their interest to licence firearms") If the general public are not going to pay some it is obviously not in their intrest to licence anymore so abolish it! Sorry being a bit facetious /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-smile.gif Wouldnt mind paying the extra if we are recieving a better service and get longer between renewals but do begrudge paying a substantial increase and not recieving any added value.

 

[Westward]

Doubt if anything will change. I'd gladly pay extra if they'd be a bit more pleasant when they come out to inspect.

 

[Salopian]

When you send your renewal with the fee your cheque is cashed within days. My mate has just waited 10 months for a renewal and had to get sh*tty with them because he was out of cartridges.If you are kept waiting ask them for a section 7 certificate (temporary licence) they do not like issuing these as they are audited and it is a measure of the departments inefficiency.I told my mate to ring the Licensing authority and ask for one the reply was " Funny you should ring, I am just processing your renewal now, I have it in front of me" arrived two days later after repeated requests over four months.

 

[Westward]

More or less the same in my case. Renewal took almost 4 months (time before was 2 weeks). When I requested the temp licencence so that I could legally go out and shoot they were a bit sniffy at first but issued it in a couple of days. I'm told that these things go straight to the top for authorisation and awkward questions get asked."Mind how you go"./wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-wink.gif

 

[Mike]

When I renewed, not recently but five years ago, I was offered a section 7 without having to ask for one. According to the feo, they were short staffed. You need a section 7 just to posses your guns, never mind shooting them.

 

[Westward]

Mike said:

When I renewed, not recently but five years ago, I was offered a section 7 without having to ask for one. According to the feo, they were short staffed. You need a section 7 just to posses your guns, never mind shooting them.

No doubt, but my firearms dept. advised me that if my cert. expired the guns would have to stay in the safe and I couldn't buy shells. No good to me - and I didn't believe them anyway - so I requested the temp permit."Evening all"

 

[VicW]

I can see no reason why a SGC/FAC has to be renewed every five years.An occasional review of security arrangements or on change of address would suffice I would have thought.If you are found guilty of an offence that precludes you from owning a firearm,that would be flagged up automatically via the Police National Computor.Driving licences are not renewed until your seventy and you are in charge of a lethal weapon while driving. Vic.

 

[Outlaw]

Photo ID as in driving licenses and passports are renewed every 10 years so every 5 years for something as important as a SGC/FAC I think is ok.

 

[jasper]

hi alledited by Mr glenmorangiethanksjasper