The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Daryll wrote:Cambridgeshire require you to send in the original FAC with renewals, and say so on the form. I think the idea is that you cannot have 2 FAC's in your possession, as they can't guarantee you'll destroy the old one when you receive the new one.
(You can't have old and new as you could have had a "slot", permissions or conditions removed at renewal, but they will still be on the old one.)

Then Cambridgeshire are wrong, it is not a requirement to return the old certificate on a renewal.

Whatever is on your old one is irrelevant, because it will be expired, as shown clearly on the front of it.

The police do not make the law. You can allow the police to walk all over you and make up stuff as they want if you like, but they do not make the rules they only have to follow them like we all do.

I have found that in the past if they come out with made up stuff a calm call to the FEO for a chat explaining why this is not acceptable has sorted it out. They tried on the last renewal with a reduction of ammo allowances on renewal for no reason other than misreading of the guidance and it was sorted amicably.

If my police wanted my application 6 months early and the original handed in at that time (so I couldn't buy ammo or firearms as entitled by the license that is still valid and paid for) then I will only have a license for 4.5 years, this is unacceptable to me and unworkable with the way I shoot.

For those that say you cannot have two licenses at once, well that's wrong too (another made up 'rule'?). I have two in my name here now, one personal and one club. On the last renewal they were so quick it arrived two months before the expiry of the old one, so I had three - however there is a start date so, apart from the club FAC, I only ever had one personal and valid FAC to hand at any one time. I couldn't use the new one until its start date and the old one was still in force right up until that day.

David TS wrote:

Daryll wrote:Cambridgeshire require you to send in the original FAC with renewals, and say so on the form. I think the idea is that you cannot have 2 FAC's in your possession, as they can't guarantee you'll destroy the old one when you receive the new one.
(You can't have old and new as you could have had a "slot", permissions or conditions removed at renewal, but they will still be on the old one.)

Then Cambridgeshire are wrong, it is not a requirement to return the old certificate on a renewal.

Whatever is on your old one is irrelevant, because it will be expired, as shown clearly on the front of it.

I've just checked on the renewal form and it does look like they've changed it in the last year or 2... it now says:
"In the case of an application for renewal, a signed and dated recent copy of the certificate to be
renewed should be sent to police when you submit your application."

So it looks like they'll accept a copy now..

Mattnall wrote: If my police wanted my application 6 months early and the original handed in at that time (so I couldn't buy ammo or firearms as entitled by the license that is still valid and paid for) then I will only have a license for 4.5 years, this is unacceptable to me and unworkable with the way I shoot.

This is something that I need to clarify with our local licensing department.
The letter I received states:

"... note that you will have a new expiry date, which will be five years from the date that we renew. This is reflected in the reduced fee."

If I were to renew now I would lose about a year's worth of valid license as I understand it. The fee for a coterminous FAC/SGC is currently £90 which breaks down to a value of £18 per year so a £25 fee for five years is financially attractive.
However, the faffing around with forms, photos, intrusive home visits, and arguing the toss on introduced non-guidance requirements is something that I wasn't expecting to bother with for another year and a bit.
Shooting being the expensive sport that it is a saving of £65 doesn't really motivate me - it's about the equivalent of a tub of black powder substitute and a box of balls to me.

BUT. If I could cling to my existing FAC for the best part of the year and then renew a few months early but within their useful range ... that'd be worth the candle.

knewmans wrote:The Met guidance notes state

"In the case of an application for renewal, a signed and dated recent copy of the certificate to be renewed should be sent to police when you submit your application."

https://www.met.police.uk/ar/applyregis ... nce-notes/

This is what I did for my renewal this year.

For variations they want the original.

And herein lies proof of the inconsistancies of the whole system.
Maybe I should have mingled a bit more at that meeting and then asked the same question to another one of the team, I might have got a different answer on the night!

Dark Skies wrote:

Mattnall wrote: If my police wanted my application 6 months early and the original handed in at that time (so I couldn't buy ammo or firearms as entitled by the license that is still valid and paid for) then I will only have a license for 4.5 years, this is unacceptable to me and unworkable with the way I shoot.

This is something that I need to clarify with our local licensing department.
The letter I received states:

"... note that you will have a new expiry date, which will be five years from the date that we renew. This is reflected in the reduced fee."

If I were to renew now I would lose about a year's worth of valid license as I understand it. The fee for a coterminous FAC/SGC is currently £90 which breaks down to a value of £18 per year so a £25 fee for five years is financially attractive.
However, the faffing around with forms, photos, intrusive home visits, and arguing the toss on introduced non-guidance requirements is something that I wasn't expecting to bother with for another year and a bit.
Shooting being the expensive sport that it is a saving of £65 doesn't really motivate me - it's about the equivalent of a tub of black powder substitute and a box of balls to me.

BUT. If I could cling to my existing FAC for the best part of the year and then renew a few months early but within their useful range ... that'd be worth the candle.

I would be surprised if they visited nowadays

kennyc wrote:I would be surprised if they visited nowadays

I've held a FAC continuously for thirty-four years now. In the early years they didn't bother after my initial application.
However, the past two renewals they did visit and compared the serial numbers of the bolts against the rifles they were intended for.
I can't recall if they did in years prior to that - my memory is kind of hazy on the small stuff.

They may be minded to as I now have two more BP revolvers on top of the collection of rifles I had last time around. I'm nipping up security to counter the "too many guns" attitude.

Co-terminus renewal of both as opposed to a renewal and grant of either is only £65.

Had me concerned as that was the amount I paid the other month.

My renewals and house moves have always been visited, and each time I've been asked to open my cabinet so that serial numbers could be checked against my certs.

jimbo303 wrote:Co-terminus renewal of both as opposed to a renewal and grant of either is only £65.

Had me concerned as that was the amount I paid the other month.

You're right - I've just gone back to their fees page and checked. In that case my incentive to renew early and lose a year to help out the police just evaporated.