To ask the Minister of Justice to detail any consideration her Department has given to the role of firearms as an essential tool within agriculture, including for vermin control and livestock protection, in developing proposals to increase firearms licensing fees.

Whilst I am mindful of the impact on those who rely on firearms for pest control activities within the agricultural sector, the licensing fee is the same for all applicants, and each applicant is required to be assessed to be a “fit” person and have “good reason” for each firearm or ammunition holding applied for. The question arising is whether the Police Service can afford to continue to subsidise licensing at the expense of other policing functions, or whether it should revert to being a full cost recovery as originally intended.

The Department’s consultation on proposals to amend firearms licensing fees and the “banded system” is open until 29 May 2026. A Rural Needs Impact Assessment has been carried out and is available to view on the Department’s website.

I encourage members of the public, and any representative organisation, to share their views on the social, economic, environmental or rural impacts as part of the consultation process, and all responses will be considered when developing the Department’s final proposals.