Police & Crime Commissioner for Surrey response to the HMICFRS report: An inspection of firearms licencing across police forces in England and Wales
1. Police & Crime Commissioner comments:
- I welcome the findings of this report and the following sections set out how the Force are addressing the recommendations that relate to Chief Constables. I will monitor progress through my Office’s existing oversight mechanisms.
2. Response to Recommendations
- Recommendation 13
- By 1 December 2026, chief constables should:
- satisfy themselves that their scheme of delegation for firearms licensing is fit for purpose and in line with the firearms licensing authorised professional practice; andcheck that decision-making is in accordance with that scheme.
- The scheme of Delegation has recently been refreshed. Some existing delegates and new delegates require their delegation to be refreshed by the Current Chief Constable. This will be complete before December 1st .
- A matrix of decision making has been adopted for every day working and shared with delegated authorities.
- An on-call rota is staffed with delegated authorities that have the delegation to revoke in emergency.
- Surrey Police have commenced a regular series of meetings as follows:
- Bi-monthly peer review meeting where we review by dip checking decisions made by the Chief Inspector highest level in Tier meeting 1, Inspectors and managers in the Tier meeting 2 and Supervisors in Tier meeting 3. On this rotation all the delegated hierarchy will be peer reviewed, and dip checked at least every 2 months.
- A monthly management meeting that is recorded with an agenda item for organisational learning/standardization and case studies.
- Surrey Police also take part in the new Regional Managers meeting where monthly delegated authorities in the region present case studies and decision making to achieve standardisation.
- Delegated authorities have a buddy in force and the higher-level Inspector and above we have other force buddies regionally.
- Recommendation 14
- By 1 December 2026, chief constables should make sure that they have audit and dip sampling processes in place to review firearms licensing decisions in line with the firearms licensing authorised professional practice.
- A matrix of decision making has been adopted for every day working and shared with delegated authorities.
- We have commenced a regular bi-monthly peer review meeting where we review by dip checking decisions made by the Chief Inspector highest level in Tier meeting 1, Inspectors and managers in the Tier meeting 2 and Supervisors in Tier meeting 3. On this rotation all the delegated hierarchy will be peer reviewed, and dip checked at least every 2 months.
- A monthly management meeting that is recorded with an agenda item for organisational learning/standardization and case studies.
- Surrey Police also take part in the new Regional Managers meeting where monthly delegated authorities in the region present case studies and decision making to achieve standardisation.
- Recommendation 18
- By 1 December 2026, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for firearms licensing should specify the financial information that forces need to have a clear understanding of the cost of firearms licensing. Chief constables should then record and report this information, including data on actual costs, to the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead annually.
- The Finance lead is aware of Force staffing cost vs the income generation from licences.
- There is a clear understanding of this and formulas for predicting income /budgets based on the number of renewals due each year.
- Currently it appears that the staffing costs exceed income and that the Strategic Demand Assessment will likely make recommendations where staffing needs to increase to manage predicted demand to achieve service delivery. The Force are however dependent on the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for firearms licensing specifying what the financial information is we need to report on. Until information is received the Force are working towards being compliant.
- Recommendation 20
- By 1 December 2026, chief constables should establish or maintain:
- a force-level firearms licensing governance structure that is compliant with the firearms licensing authorised professional practice; and
- a qualitative and quantitative performance framework that covers both risk and how quickly firearms and explosives licensing units process applications
- Surrey Police have an established firearms licensing governance structure.
- Hierarchical Performance meetings are chaired BI-weekly at Department Head Level and at the higher Force Performance Board Quarterly chaired by the Deputy Chief Constable.
- There is a full-time Firearms licensing manager at Chief Inspector level supported by two Inspectors, a civilian Firearms Licensing Manager and two Deputy Mangers and a Sergeant for the proactive intervention team.
- Performance against the College and NPCC key performance indicators (KPIs) are reported on weekly to the Strategic Lead ACC Rayland and to the DCC on request.Surrey Police have a Power BI product that allows the Force to measure performance against the measured KPIs and all other areas such as visitor permits, club visits, variations etc which shows considerable hidden demand.
- Qualitative element of the performance framework is sharing timescales with key stakeholder such as National Rifle Association (NRA), British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), National Farmers Union (NFU) leadership and presenting case studies sanitised to force level IAGs and interested parties on open days through our engagement plan which will be refreshed before 1st December.
- Recommendation 21
- By 1 December 2026, chief constables should make sure they have a documented engagement plan in line with firearms licensing authorised professional practice.
- Actions have been tasked in the FELU management meeting to update the engagement dates for 2026/27. This will be in place by the end of October 2026.Chief Inspector is conducting introductory meetings with the BASC (Completed), NFU and NRA regional leads which are anticipated to be complete by 1st December 2026.
- The Force also have an engagement tracker to record low level engagement with Firearms Enquiry Officers (FEOs) which is now stored and updated centrally.
- Recommendation 22
- By 1 February 2027, the Home Office and the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for firearms licensing, working with the College of Policing and police forces, should secure long-term funding for national training for those involved in firearms licensing.
- Surrey Police have budgeted for and booked all available courses for current FEOs and are seeking courses for proactive team officers.
- The Force are currently recruiting and hence any new starters will be booked on courses after joining.
- Surrey Police have requested availability of the Delegated Authority and Decision Makers (DADM) course when available from the College of Policing.
- The Force are dependent on the NPCC and College of Policing on securing long term funding- once the funding has been released the Force will secure the relevant funding.
- Recommendation 23
- With immediate effect, chief constables should satisfy themselves that any firearms and explosives licensing unit practitioners who are responsible for handling and transporting firearms are qualified to handle them safely.
- All firearms and Explosive Unit Practioners are either fully trained and refreshed annually around firearms handling and transportation or if new to the team are being mentored by experienced staff who have had a weapons handling course provided by firearms training and recorded on Chronicle.
- All new staff are booked to be fully trained before December 1st 2026