Gun changes ‘will not affect safety’

The Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Firearms Licensing Unit will next month end blanket visits to people reviewing their firearms licences.

But the move has been criticised by one government minister, who described it as introducing “remote control”.

James Brokenshire, minister for crime prevention, said: “We think that seeing someone, seeing the environment, inspecting where guns and ammunition are being stored is an important part of the process to ensure that the police are being satisfied that the relevant licensing conditions are being adhered to and getting a sense of the individual,.

“We think that doing that almost by remote control doesn’t have those elements attached to it and why we think that it is an important part of the process.”

The changes are being introduced by the new-look unit, which is one of the new collaborative areas by Beds and Herts Police forces.

But a spokesman for the unit said that no one had lost their licence as a result of a home visit for more than six years in Beds and Herts.

A spokesman said: “Blanket home visits to people renewing their licences will be replaced by a risk-assessed process where enhanced intelligence checks will identify those who should receive a home visit, without waiting for the expiry of their current licence.

“Home visits will form only part of these intelligence processes and we will continue to be robust in our monitoring systems.

“No changes are proposed in the detailed checks we carry out when considering an initial application for a licence.”