Short guide to firearms licensing

The UK has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. People who want to own guns for legitimate reasons (for sport or as part of the rural economy) must get a licence from the police. The use of firearms in crime is taken very seriously and firearms offences carry heavy penalties.

The law governing firearms regulation in the UK is very complex. It includes several pieces of primary and secondary legislation. The legislative framework has been criticised for being incoherent and difficult to find.

The Law Commission (the independent body responsible for reviewing the law) published a review of firearms law in 2015 and recommended it be codified so that the legislation is clear, consistent and can be understood by ordinary people. It also recommended several key terms be defined by new legislation. Part 6 of the Policing and Crime Act 2017 went some way to implementing the Law Commission’s recommendations to define key terms but stopped short of codifying the law.

The Home Office maintains a collection of resources relating to firearms licensing, including the Statutory guidance for police on firearms licensing which helps police chiefs carry out checks when assessing someone’s suitability to own firearms or become a registered firearms dealer and the Home Office guide to firearms licensing law which is designed to educate the police, gun owners and the public about firearms law.

As of March 2025, there were 145,306 firearm certificates and 482,612 shotgun certificates issued in England and Wales. In total, 496,904 individuals in England and Wales held either a firearm or shotgun certificate in March 2025.

The use of firearms in crime is relatively rare in England and Wales. There were 4,851 offences involving a firearm (not including air weapons) in the year ending September 2025. This was a decrease of 9% from the year ending September 2024.

32 homicide victims were killed by shooting in the year ending March 2025. This is equivalent to 6% of all homicides and is ten more than the previous year.

Firearms licensing is managed locally by police forces. People wanting to get a firearms licence must apply directly to their local police force.

Police forces in England, Scotland and Wales are required to follow Home Office statutory guidance on firearms licensing when making decisions about whether to grant a firearms licence.

The process for obtaining a shotgun certificate is simpler than for other firearms, due to shotguns having legitimate uses such as “helping farmers control vermin on their land and in rural pursuits” as well as “clay pigeon shooting and sporting pursuits”.

Police decision-makers must satisfy themselves that the applicant can be entrusted with a firearm, has good reason to own one, and will not cause danger to public safety. Public safety is expected to be the main consideration for the police before issuing a licence.

Firearms licences must be renewed every five years but between this time police forces are expected to continually monitor licence owners to ensure they still meet the criteria to own a firearm.

The police can revoke a licence at any time if they deem that the individual is no longer fit to own a firearm and the courts also have powers to cancel licenses in certain circumstances.

Licensing fees increased in February 2025 for the first time since 2015. The cost of a firearms certificate increased from £88 to £198 and the cost of a shotgun certificate increased from £79.50 to £194 (a £144% rise).

There have been calls to change firearms licensing laws following the Plymouth shootings in August 2021, in which five people were shot and killed by a licensed shotgun owner.

In a preventing future deaths report, the Senior Coroner for Plymouth, Torbay and South Devon, Ian Arrow, called for a “root and branch” reform to firearms licensing laws, stating that the Firearms Act was at “odds with public safety and the fundamental principle that owning a gun is a privilege and not a right.”

Mr Arrow recommended that the government should:

• align the licensing regime for shotguns with other firearms,
• review the length of time firearm certificates are granted for, and
• introduce a new power for the police to search a certificate holder’s house enabling immediate seizure of firearms, shotguns and ammunition.

In February 2025, the Labour government issued a formal response to the consultation on recommendations the Home Office had received about changes to firearms legislation.

The Labour government committed to consult further on aligning shotgun and firearms licensing “later this year” to:

look again at the differences in the controls and whether it is sensible, in order to address the risks that shotguns and firearms present if misused, to consider greater alignment of the controls.

This was further confirmed in August 2025, when the Home Office again stated that it would be consulting “later this year” on measures to “strengthen existing controls on shotguns” and “to improve controls on the privates sales of firearms.”

In January 2026, the Policing Minister, Sarah Jones, said that the government intended to publish the consultation “shortly”, stating:

We will carefully consider all of the views put forward during the consultation, including the potential impact on those who live and work in rural communities, before taking any decisions on whether changes are necessary in the interests of public safety.

Further details of the government’s position was set out in the government’s response to E-petition 750236:Do not merge section 1 & 2 regulations on firearms licenses in January 2026.

The petition, which had received 119,232 signatures at the time of writing, urged the government to “keep section 1 firearm & section 2 shotgun licensing separate” stating that “merging licenses would create delays, higher costs, and bureaucracy without improving public safety.” The petition instead urged the government to “focus on real public safety issues without burdening responsible citizens or damaging heritage & livelihoods.”

The government’s response stated that it was holding a public consultation on strengthening licensing controls on shotguns “in the interests of public safety” after legally held shotguns had been used in homicides and other incidents in recent years.

The government acknowledged that most shotguns and firearms are used “safely and responsibly” and that “shooting contributes to the rural economy” and confirmed that “no decisions have yet been made on whether and what changes might be necessary” and that it would “consider carefully the views put forward during the consultation […] before deciding what further action to take.”

Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance campaign group, has described the proposals to align shotgun and firearms licensing as “draconian and unreasonable” and that “this is clearly a policy designed to reduce gun ownership by making it restrictive, expensive and bureaucratic.”

The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) has stated that there is “no evidential basis to support further legislation” and that the “firearms licensing process must be predicated on evidence, not ideology.” BASC has further stated that:

If the Government was really serious about public safety, it would be consulting on how to fix a failing and inconsistent police firearms licensing system, rather than imposing new restrictions on responsible people who comply with the law.

BASC is committed to working constructively with government to ensure public safety – it is not in the interests of the shooting community for the wrong people to have guns – but proposals must be evidence-led, proportionate and targeted at genuine risk.

The Gun Trade Association, an organisation that supports UK gun trade businesses, has estimated that the proposal to align shotgun and firearms licensing will “cost the gun trade, shooting, the Exchequer and wider UK economy in the region of £2.38 billion and in effect destroy the sector.”

They have called the proposals “ill-judged” and “the wrong answer to the wrong question at the wrong time”. The Gun Trade Association has instead urged the government to reform the “broken” police firearms licensing system.

Superintendent Steven Duncan, Head of National Firearms and Explosives Licensing for Police Scotland, previously spoke in support of aligning shotgun and firearms licensing, telling the Scottish Affairs Committee that this would make the process “consistent and clear for everyone”.

Dr Mick North, whose daughter was killed in the Dunblane massacre in 1996 said that “the public would be much safer were shotguns to be aligned with Section 1 firearms and subject to the same stringent licensing as the latter.”

Section 2.2 and 2.3 of the briefing includes further details.

In August 2025, the Labour government updated the Firearms Rules 1998 to introduce “tighter controls on firearms licensing […] to keep people safe and help the police to apply the law consistently.”

The changes introduced by the Labour government include:

• increasing the number of referees required for a shotgun licence application from one to two in line with the number of references required for other firearms,
• introducing additional checks for all firearms licence applications where the applicant is suspected of domestic abuse or other violence, and
• updating the guidance so that “any evidence of dishonesty or concerns about a person’s integrity” such as lying on the application or withholding information about medical conditions will be considered when reviewing an application.

The Home Office also confirmed that it will be consulting “later this year” on measures to “strengthen existing controls on shotguns” and “to improve controls on the private sales of firearms.”

Emma Ambler, a firearms campaigner whose twin sister and two nieces were murdered with a legally owned weapon welcomed the changes, stating:

I’m really pleased that the government is strengthening the current firearms licensing guidance. Although there is still some way to go, these changes are very welcome and it is pleasing to finally feel listened to after five years of campaigning to make the system safer.

I still believe that holding a gun licence is a privilege and not a right. The priority has to be the safety of society and it’s so important to stop these extremely dangerous weapons falling into the wrong hands, which these changes will go some way to doing.

The British Association for Shooting and Conservation stated that the changes to the firearms licensing application process “will not enhance public safety”, stating:

If the Home Office really wanted to improve public safety, it would make it mandatory for general practitioners to add a marker to the medical records of any patient who is a certificate holder. The marker allows GPs to identify a person as the owner of firearms and, if necessary, alert the police if the patient develops a condition which makes possession of firearms dangerous.