Licence Renewal (Scotland, of course)

[Griffon]

Hi,

I was wondering what sort of experience people are having renewing their airgun licences in Scotland? I guess most will have come around for renewal by now. My original application was in Nov 2016 but the licence wasn't issued until April 2017.

Currently I'm waiting for my renewal to be determined, last thing was an an acknowledgement thanking me for sending everything "in good time". That was around three weeks ago and my existing license expires today.

What sort of timescales have people seen for processing? And what sort of quizzing have applicants or their verifiers received from their local Police? I thought they were asking for a lot more detail than I would have expected, well beyond what's asked for on the application form.

Thanks, AS

[bighit]

Mine is in for renewal but as I have FAC and SGC too so I need to wait for the FEO to visit.

The AWL form is poor.

On the FAC and SGC you give the referees details and the police contact them.

On the AWL , you have to get the referee to sign it . So in my case I had to send it to my mate 150miles away as my shooting buddy here works for the SPA* and I cant use him as a referee and the others I know here were naughty when younger so they would not be seen as suitable by the police I suspect and two others are Anti gun and I respect their veiws.

I was lucky that another shooting buddy could be my other FAC and SGC referee but he could not do the AWL form as he was out of the country for 2 months at the time I needed it signed.

One of my FAC referees is also my AWL referee who has known me my whole life , so he would be getting called anyway . I sent the AWL form for him to sign.

Plus the AWL asks for ALL illnesses and not just the ones the FAC and SGC asks about. So I had to mention my type 2 diabetes and asthma which I informed the FEO of before I applied. My doctor report for my FAC and SGC came back saying the Doctor had no concerns on me being issued my FAC and SGC certs so that should cover the AWL too.

I will he asking the FEO why the two forms are so different in relation to those things I mentioned above.

* SPA = The Scottish Police Authority.

[Griffon]

Cheers. The AWL form refers to a "verifier" rather than a referee. In my original application me and a colleague just filled in our applications together, and each signed as verifiers for the other. Neither of us were contacted by the Police. This time the Police contacted my verifier the day after I submitted my application, and subjected him to quite extensive questioning. But that's as far as the process has apparently progressed. Do you know if the Police are visiting all AWL applicants at renewal?

I'm just not sure if I should be chasing them up or leaving it to run its course. I am convinced my original application only progressed because I chased them up, too much of a coincidence that five months after I applied they happened to process my form a couple of days after I chased! But at renewal it's different, my existing licence continues to be valid until the renewal is decided, so maybe no special reason to chase.

[bighit]

Cheers. The AWL form refers to a "verifier" rather than a referee. In my original application me and a colleague just filled in our applications together, and each signed as verifiers for the other. Neither of us were contacted by the Police. This time the Police contacted my verifier the day after I submitted my application, and subjected him to quite extensive questioning. But that's as far as the process has apparently progressed. Do you know if the Police are visiting all AWL applicants at renewal?

I'm just not sure if I should be chasing them up or leaving it to run its course. I am convinced my original application only progressed because I chased them up, too much of a coincidence that five months after I applied they happened to process my form a couple of days after I chased! But at renewal it's different, my existing licence continues to be valid until the renewal is decided, so maybe no special reason to chase.

Yes its " verifier" on the AWL ,same as referee I would suspect but it has to be different to the FAC and SGC for some reason

Not sure about the visit for AWL for renewals but I know they have visited some first time applicants . Possibly due to them putting Plinking down as a reason to own the airgun. They will be inspecting the gardens or land that was specified for the Plinking.

It said on my renewal letter my renewal could be done with out a visit if restrictions were in place due to covid but I'm getting the visit. I was told not to include photos for this reason as he will take them at the visit.

Only thing I can see that may be a problem with your " expired " AWL is that if you wanted to buy certain parts like a barrel or moderator as the AWL has to be shown to the RFD. Your friend could buy them for you though as nothing is listed on your certs like they are on an FAC.

My FEO has all my certs in the firearms office just now. I cant buy anything at present. My certs run out at the end of May.

When the AWL first came in , FAC and SGC holders were allowed to posses their airguns until their FAC or SGC renewal but we could not buy a new airgun via an RFD, buy component parts or moderators. If we wanted to buy any of them we had to apply for the AWL at full cost rather than wait and get it along with our other certs. I suspect you will be in that sort of situation until your cert comes.

I would email them and see if it's close to being completed. They may have it sitting on the pile to be posted.

[DAR]

I’m now on an annual renewal due to a medical condition. Local Firearms officer advised me that renewals should be entered about three months prior to expire. My last visit was a sit down chat and then a check on my gun security arrangements.

[urx]

what a crock of make work do goodery virtue signalling effort wasting....pffff

[Griffon]

Local Firearms officer advised me that renewals should be entered about three months prior to expire.

In my case that simply wasn't possible. I got a letter in December but it specifically said not to send in the form until local Police make contact. I even emailed them (the central bunch) when nothing seemed to be happening, and got a response essentially saying nothing will happen until much nearer the renewal date. Local Police made contact about four weeks before renewal date, and as I say they confirmed receipt of all required information "in good time". I think they'd have a hard job claiming I'd left it late.

[bighit]

I’m now on an annual renewal due to a medical condition. Local Firearms officer advised me that renewals should be entered about three months prior to expire. My last visit was a sit down chat and then a check on my gun security arrangements.

My letter to give me the renewal info came in the first week of Febuary and the certs run out on the 28th of May.

Sent out early due to the GP here taking almost two months to do the medical report for the FAC and SGC certs. The letter said to fill in the forms and keep them until contacted by the FEO. A week later the FEO Emailed me to tell me to fill them in and hand them in to my local police station.

The GP did the report in 3 weeks then the invoice came through the post, £48 please .

[bufo]

My renewal for all certificates is also due. Last time the GP just issued a form letter for medical consent, this time they had a form to fill out and it took considerably longer to process and cost twice as much. Its almost as if they are trying to make it more complicated and expensive to discourage people from renewing in Scotland.

[bighit]

My renewal for all certificates is also due. Last time the GP just issued a form letter for medical consent, this time they had a form to fill out and it took considerably longer to process and cost twice as much. Its almost as if they are trying to make it more complicated and expensive to discourage people from renewing in Scotland.

My renewal for FAC and SGC 2017 ,The medical report was the same as it is now. Only think that changed this time was the cost. It was £35 in 2017.

[Griffon]

I've just received the new certificate through the post, one less thing to worry about.

[zephyr]

I do not work for the Government or in the legal industry and I'm not connected to the Police.

My own experience - I carefully completed and sent in my AWL1 for renewal in good time. "Verification" was signed by a fellow shooting club member. No need for Dr letter. New AWL received without further questions or delay.

I have noticed in recent months the Police are checking up on the 'Reason' for an AWL more than previously. Anomalies in the reasons given, do, understandably, cause delays.

[Archer50]

The police are now checking every applicant - first time, or renewal - who claims to be a member of my club, making sure their membership is current and asking how many times they have attended in the past year. Most applicants have been fine, but there have been a couple who are definitely not members and never have been, so I doubt if they'll be getting an AWC any time soon.

[pa_broon74]

Just dig this up a bit, it's not to old though - hope no one minds.

My AWL also came up for renewal. It wasn't just granted this time round.

On the one hand, if they're going to do it, they may-as-well do it properly and check up on answers to questions, on the other, it still don't think it deters airguns being in the wrong hands. (Although how often are airguns used in crime anyway? But that's not my point/question.)

I only shoot with Scouts, we offer it as an activity about once every two or three months.

I filled out the renewal, nothing to report there. But this time they wanted to check out where I shoot. (I can't remember what I said first time round.) We have a range set up in our scout hall, (it's our building, not hired or anything). The range is not permanent. We also have some land down in the Borders, but that's not fully on line yet. They came down to look at the set up - I checked to see what groups did elsewhere, and based out set up on that. There was a comment about it not being ideal - but it's a scout hall, not a full time shooting range, and with the best will in the world, we're not shooting live ammunition.

They advised that I apply for a club license, they said my AWL license didn't cover shooting as an activity for Scouts. They said, rather than apply for an event licence every time we did it, a club license would cover us.

We're not a shooting club though. We seem to fall through the cracks. Apparently, if we were for-profit, an individual's AWL would cover recreational shooting, but we're not for-profit so...

The club form isn't arduous to fill out it's much the same as the individual AWL form, but my question would be - has anyone else come across this? I know there are scout activity centres that offer shooting as an activity, are they running 'shooting clubs' too?

This is a bit niche, but I wondered if anyone else had come across this.


PS: I would say, the officers were keen for the activity to run, they absolutely weren't being oppositional about it. I think they were 'interpreting' the AWL legislation as best they could too - it's not well written, at least, not for our circumstances.