Recommendation 37

Currently, there are several ways in which people can report concerns to the police. One way is to call the 101 service for non-emergency incidents. Fraser Lamb, Firearms Licensing Adviser for the Scottish Association for Country Sports, told us that police will ask firearms licence applicants’ referees: “‘Would you know who to phone if you had concerns about the person?’ … trying to elicit the answer ‘Dial 101’”.109 An alternative, which Superintendent Steven Duncan, Head of National Firearms and Explosives Licensing for Police Scotland, told us is for people to contact the police using an online portal.110 A third way is to call the charity, Crimestoppers - Superintendent Duncan noted that one advantage of Crimestoppers is that people “can raise information or intelligence anonymously”.111