Firearms Statutory Guidance
HMIC published a report in September 2015 on the outcome of their inspection of police firearms licensing departments. Police licensing departments deal primarily with the licensing of shotguns and other civilian firearms, for use by farmers and in recreational shooting. The report, Targeting the risk: An inspection of the efficiency and effectiveness of firearms licensing in police forces in England and Wales, September 2015, HMIC, recommended strengthening the safeguards in the current licensing regime and improving consistency across forces in the procedures they follow. To this end, section 133 introduces a power to issue statutory guidance to chief officers on the exercise of their firearms licensing functions, with a duty on chief officers to have regard to the guidance.