Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to require General Practitioners to place a marker on the medical notes of firearms certificate holders.

It is a requirement that all applicants for a firearms licence must provide relevant medical information to the police with their application, and this is supported by a new digital firearms marker which is placed on the patient/licence holder’s medical record by their GP.

The marker alerts the GP to the fact that their patient is a firearms licence holder if they are being seen or treated for a medical condition that might impact on their safe possession or use of a firearm.

The digital marker has been rolled out to all GP surgeries in England and GPs are asked to place the medical marker on the licence holder’s medical records when a certificate is either issued or renewed.

The marker enables GPs to alert the police should their patient who is a firearms licence holder begin to suffer from a relevant medical condition and this ensures that the police can then assess whether it is safe for the individual to continue to have access to firearms.