Firearm certificates 641/2022

FOI Reference: 641/2022

Request:

• The number of firearm certificates (FAC’s) on issue as of July 2022.
• The number of shotgun certificates (SGC’s) on issue as of July 2022
• The number of FAC renewals pending and how many of them relate to expired certificates.
• The number of shotgun certificate renewals pending and how many of them relate to expired certificates.
• The number of FAC grant applications pending.
• The number of shotgun certificate grant applications pending.
• An estimate of the time between the receipt of an application and the issue of the certificate.

Response:

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1) (a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.

Where exemptions are relied upon Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Dyfed Powys Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which:   (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information you have requested. However we are withholding the whole of the requested information since we consider that the Section 12(1) exemption the Cost of Compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit applies to it.

Section 12 (1) – The cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit

Section 12(1) states: “…Section 1 (1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.”

The cost of providing you with the information requested in respect of questions 3 and 4 of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the “appropriate level” as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. It is estimated that it would exceed 18 hours (i.e. minimum of 34.10 hours) to comply with this part of your request. The regulations can be located @

www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2004/20043244.htm

The Freedom of Information department has been advised that the information in respect of questions 3 and 4 of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. In light of this, to accurately obtain the information would involve accessing and reviewing all outstanding shotgun and firearms certificates in order to ascertain a response in relation to questions 3 and 4 of your request. It has been established that there are a total of 682 outstanding shotgun and firearms certificates and it has also been established that it would take a minimum of 3 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single certificate in respect of questions 3 and 4 (as outlined above).  The process outlined results in the below time estimate.

682 certificates @ a minimum of 3 minutes per certificate = 34.10 hours

Time estimate to complete task = 34.10 hours

In accordance therefore with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for the Whole of this request under Section 17(5) A public authority which, in relation to any request for information, is relying on a claim that section 12 or section 14 applies must, within the time for complying with section 1(1), give the applicant a notice stating that fact. You may wish to refine and resubmit your request so that it reduces the time shown above to fall within the 18 hours, should you require any further advice in relation to this matter please don’t hesitate to contact the Freedom of Information Unit.

Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the public authorities right to cite exemptions if relevant.

Although excess cost removes the forces obligations under the Freedom of Information Act to provide any further information, as a gesture of goodwill, I have provided information, relative to the rest of your request which has been easily retrievable and outlined below. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of your request.

Q1: 4,253 firearm certificate holders

Q2: 12,836 shotgun certificate holders

Q5: 57 FAC grant applications pending

Q6: 91 shotgun certificate grant applications pending

Q7: for the last 12 months:

Firearms Grant avg 70 days

Firearms Renewal avg 67 days

Shotgun Grant avg 66 days and

Shotgun Renewal avg 57 days

                                                                                                                                               

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 13/09/22)