Alison Hernandez (Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner) introduced the report and highlighted:

a)    Since the report had been published a letter and report from HMICFRS had been received and circulated with members of the panel;

b)    The report had been part funded by the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner alongside the Policing Minister, to give assurance that the firearms licensing department had delivered against recommendations from the IOPC and was working safely;

c)    In addition, since the papers had been published, the Policing Minister and Government had responded to the coroner’s recommendations and the minister had:

                      i.        Committed £500,000 to train firearms licensing officers nationally as one of the issues highlighted was that there had not been any accredited training in place;

                     ii.        He would not change the legislation around honouring  a firearms licences certificate for a resident but had a consultation out around the level of fees for the cost of firearms licences and the commissioner urged members and residents to take part to express their views;

d)    The Police had taken responsibility for issuing a firearm to someone who should not have had on in the case of the Keyham shootings and a 100 person investment had been made into the department;

e)    A significant amount of funding had been invested in the department, but challenges around efficiency remained;

f)     The Commissioner had been reassured the department was much safer and the report from HMI had reiterated this;

g)    The decision had been made to decouple from Dorset Police which was underway.

In response to questions it was explained:

h)    The Commissioner would provide information to panel members on the difference between the income generated from licenses and the cost of issuing such a license;

i)     Panel Members suggested that people should surrender their firearms whilst waiting for a new licence, rather than having a temporary licence and the Commissioner explained that Assistant Chief Constable Jim Pierce had recently been appointed and oversaw the firearms licensing department had a plan in place to reduce the use of temporary licences and regular update reports were sent to the OPCC and the Commissioner was sharing updates with the Policing Minister;

j)     99 members of staff from Devon and Cornwall Police were being put into the department;

k)    The Commissioner was happy to support Plymouth City Council with any letters and meetings that might be needed to seek support for the £400,000 cost of the inquest into the incident;

l)     The Commissioner would provide information after the meeting on how the issue of illegal firearms would be approached;

m)  Knife amnesties took place twice a year, but the Commissioner could not recall the last time a gun amnesty had taken place and so she would look into it as possibility for the future;

n)    The report had shown that 43 people held firearms illegally and the Commissioner explained that in a number of cases this was due to someone passing away, and the licensing expiring;

o)    The Commissioner would look into whether the administrative roles had been filled since the report had been published;

p)    She would share her draft response to the consultation to provide members with details on her thoughts on firearms licence fees and give them the chance to endorse her response;

q)    Firearms license fees had not gone up since 2012 and the cost was not still appropriate;

r)    The feedback from customers had been that the service had been worse since the alliance between Devon and Cornwall and Dorset and so the process had begun and was expected to conclude in September 2023 and the Commissioner would update the panel at the next meeting;

s)      As performance of the department stabilised and training took place, refusal rates might change, but there was not a strategy in place to tackle that specifically;

t)     The Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner was happy to bring an alliance report for performance for all departments to a future committee meeting;

u)    Part of the delay in the decoupling process was ensuring that Dorset Police had enough staff in place;

v)    Full cost recovery was difficult due to disparities between forces across the country;

w)   The Police force disagreed with the wording of the IOPC’s 4^th recommendation as it stated that firearm license holders should be discriminated against through the justice process;

x)    Devon and Cornwall Police had the largest number of firearms licence holders in the country and the backlog of applications was challenge, but investments were being made in staff numbers as well as system improvements and bold decisions would be made with regards to prioritisation.

The Committee agreed to recommend:

1.   Delegation of the endorsement of the Commissioners response to the consultation to lead officer, Ross Jago, in consultation with panel members;

2.   Relevant elected member, across the force area, responded to the consultation before 23 August 2023.