Recommendation 30

Keith Brown MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Justice for the Scottish Government, stated that “[t]he issue of [ … ..] shopping for referees is an important one”.98 To combat this issue, the Cabinet Secretary suggested that “one way you could go is a statutory duty to report if somebody asked you for a reference that you didn’t want to give”.99 However, the Cabinet Secretary warned against a Canadian-style system of firearms licensing, in which conjugal partners are required to countersign licence applications, stating that “[a] partner who has been subject to domestic abuse, for example, could be intimidated into providing a good reference, to allow somebody to get a licence”.100