To ask the Minister of Justice whether any consideration has been given by her Department to introducing any increase in firearms licensing fees on a phased basis.

My Department carefully considered options available within the existing legislative framework to address the current estimated £1,995,000 (2025/26) shortfall between existing firearms licensing fees and the cost to the PSNI of providing the service.

The current proposals to increase fees can be made by Article 75(3) of The Firearms (Northern Ireland) Order 2004 which sets out that the fees in Schedule 6 can be varied by Order. This can be done via secondary legislation. Any changes to the current structure of the fees, to include automatic uplifts, would require primary legislation.

As funding and delivery of public services in Northern Ireland is under pressure, my Department’s proposal recommends an increase in firearms fees to achieve full cost recovery and urgently address the financial shortfall which is currently subsidised from PSNI mainstream funding and therefore diverting much needed resources from other areas of policing. This is in line with the 2018 recommendation made by the Northern Ireland Audit Office which said “The PSNI should establish a plan to move towards full cost recovery for firearms licensing in the longer term” and, the Department of Finance’s document, Managing Public Money Northern Ireland which states that “charges for services provided by public sector organisations normally pass on the full cost of providing them”.

Whilst I acknowledge the increased costs for applicants, you will be aware that firearms licensing fees have remained unchanged for almost ten years. A firearms certificate in Northern Ireland is normally granted for a period of five years, after which it must be applied for again. For some existing firearm certificate holders the impact is they will have up to five years before they are affected by any change in fees.