A firearms licensing backlog has left hundreds of people waiting for several months – and longer than a 120-day target.
Sussex Police is recruiting more people to carry out firearms licence checks, with the workload looking likely to come under extra pressure next year as covid-era renewal applications are expected to soar.
During the coronavirus pandemic, obtaining a licence was quicker because officers carried out the process online – and restrictions on visits to licence applicants and holders’ homes meant that fewer checks took place.
Now, the force is looking at ways to manage the rise in demand on officer time because every application and renewal requires a home visit.
The issue came up at Sussex police and crime commissioner Katy Bourne’s “performance and accountability meeting” this month.
Assistant Chief Constable Steve Rayland said that the firearms licensing team was preparing for a potential doubling of its workload and was analysing demand.
ACC Rayland said: “Once we have those plans, we are going to assess how we’re able to respond.
“We know it’s coming. We’re looking at trying to address it and trying to manage the backlog demand.”
Sussex Police has been recruiting a team to deal with the backlog of new licences and licence renewals.
In the first six months of the year, just over half of applications were processed within 120 days. The target was 80 per cent.
In the year to June, the force handled 850 new firearms licences and 3,100 licence renewals.
This figure dropped in the year to the end of August, with 27 per cent of new licences granted within 120 days. No numbers were given at the meeting. Just a quarter of renewals were processed in time.
ACC Rayland said that the team was working on legacy cases to reduce the backlog while maintaining the level of licences processed within the 120-day requirement.
He said that there was more pressure on the team because more checks were required – on social media, by visiting children, visiting everyone at the applicant’s address and checking for any history of domestic abuse. This had made the process more complicated.
Mrs Bourne said that Sussex had a high number of firearms licence holders – about 16,000 in total.
She said that Thames Valley Police had about 20,000 licence holders but that was across three counties – Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
On the covid backlog, Mrs Bourne said: “That’s where a few forces have come a cropper. They didn’t understand and were caught short.”
