If you have ever waited what felt like an age for a certificate while a friend one county over had theirs back in weeks, you were not imagining it. The latest firearms licensing figures are out, and they confirm what many shooters already know: where you live makes a real difference to how long you wait. And here on the Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire borders, our own local forces tell that story perfectly.
Every quarter the National Police Chiefs’ Council publishes performance data for all 43 police firearms licensing departments in England and Wales, drawn from the national licensing system. It shows how quickly each force completes applications against the target of four months. This latest set covers the 12 months to the end of June 2026. Nationally the number of certificate holders has edged down, the proportion of applications hitting the four-month target has slipped slightly, and the number of people waiting on temporary permits has risen again, by more than 11 per cent.
The most striking thing in the data is the gap between renewals and brand new applications. If you are already a certificate holder renewing, you are generally seen quickly. If you are applying for your very first certificate, it is a different world. Avon & Somerset is the clearest example: a healthy-looking 88.6 per cent overall, but that hides renewals running at 97.5 per cent while new grants were completed on time just 7.6 per cent of the time. The same pattern repeats across many forces. So if you are new to shooting, read the grants column, not the headline.
This is where it gets close to home, because our customers fall under three different forces depending on which side of a county line they live, and the three could hardly be more different.
Thames Valley, which covers Buckinghamshire, is genuinely strong, near the top of the country, quick on renewals and, unusually, quick on new grants too, with only a handful of people on temporary permits. Northamptonshire sits mid-table: renewals are reasonable, but new applications are slow, and 88 people were waiting on a temporary permit. Bedfordshire is having a harder time of it, near the foot of the table, with 173 people on temporary permits. So two shooters buying the same gun on either side of the Beds or Bucks border could have very different waits ahead of them.
At the top, Cheshire (99.0 per cent), Merseyside (98.8 per cent) and Cumbria (97.5 per cent) lead the way, and Derbyshire deserves a special mention: 96.6 per cent overall, an outstanding 98.3 per cent on new grants, and not a single person left on a temporary permit. At the other end, Northumbria (17.7 per cent), Surrey (19.3 per cent) and Suffolk (24.4 per cent) are struggling, and Humberside alone had more than a thousand people, 1,007, waiting on temporary permits, by far the highest in the country.
When a force cannot renew a certificate before it expires, it can issue a temporary permit so you can carry on legally in the meantime. It is a useful safety net, but a rising pile of them, as we are seeing nationally, is really a sign of a system under strain rather than one running smoothly. It is also why, if your force is one of the slower ones, it pays to know the permit exists.
None of this need put you off, but a little planning goes a long way. If you are renewing, apply in good time, well before your certificate runs out, and you should be in the faster lane. Our guide to renewing your certificate walks you through exactly what to do and when, so a slower force never leaves you caught short. If you are applying for the first time, especially under a slower force like ours locally, go in with your eyes open and get everything in order early, rather than leaving it until just before a season you have your heart set on.
Every force in England and Wales, ranked by the percentage of applications completed within the four-month standard, best to worst. Our three local forces are highlighted.
Behind the numbers sits a longer-running debate. The Countryside Alliance argues that policing and licensing are really two different jobs, and that firearms licensing would be better run by a single national body, much as the DVLA handles driving licences, rather than by 43 separate forces all doing it their own way. Whatever your view, a table where one force clears 99 per cent and another under 18 makes a strong case that the current postcode lottery serves no one well.
The one thing firmly within your control is timing. Whether you are renewing or applying for the first time, get ahead of it rather than up against the clock. If your renewal is coming up, our guide to renewing your certificate sets out the steps and the sensible timescales, so wherever your force sits in the table, you stay in charge of the process.
- Figures from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) firearms licensing data for 2026/27 Quarter 1, covering the 12 months to 30 June 2026, published August 2026, as reported by the Countryside Alliance. Percentages are applications completed within the four-month service standard. Performance changes each quarter, so check the current position with your own force.
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