Recommendation 28

We also heard concerns about applicants putting pressure on people to provide references. Reverend Gordon Matheson told us that people in more remote and rural 81 Home Office, Firearms licensing: statutory guidance for Chief Officers of Police, December 2021, page 6 82 Q193 83 Home Office, Firearms licensing: statutory guidance for Chief Officers of Police, December 2021, page 6 84 Home Office, Firearms licensing: statutory guidance for Chief Officers of Police, December 2021, page 22 85 Home Office, Statutory guidance for Chief Officers of Police on firearms licensing, accessed 27 October 86 Q88 87 Q128 88 Q33 89 Q33 90 Q84 91 Q84 14 Firearms licensing regulations in Scotland areas may feel peer pressure to give positive references, if asked.92 He told us that, in smaller communities, “[t]he sense that you are helping out somebody I think does create an awful lot of pressure to give a favourable reference when you may have reservations”.93