Recommendation 86

We heard from some witnesses that more checks which could detect changes in licence holders’ mental health and suitability to own firearms are not needed. Dr Colin Shedden, Director Scotland for the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, stated that “individual certificate holders are under practical 24-hour-a-day surveillance now”214 by police, rendering set checks obsolete. Similarly, Dr John Thorogood, who has held firearms licences in Scotland for over forty years, told us that “[t]he involvement of GPs, the licensee’s criminal record together with the licensee’s posts on social media already provide sufficient evidence on which to base a decision regarding a licensee’s fitness”.215 Nick Hunt, Head of the Firearms Policy Unit at the Home Office, told us: “One of the things that we are stressing as part of the statutory guidance and working with the police is the continuous assessment process. They are looking at other police intelligence databases or whatever to make sure that they are picking up issues about individuals with firearms certificates”.216