Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number and proportion of GPs who have downloaded the IT update to allow the placement of markers 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.