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Keithkilvo1 wrote:I have also received one of the letters, what sort of fee have you guys encountered from the GP?

Cheers

I don't know yet. It's early days under the new system for me. My own GP is usually pretty decent about these things - she may not charge anything if the reply expected of her is just a few lines.

Just as an FYI, I have my first application in (CoTerminus FAC/SGC) and I have had a letter from my GP requesting I pay the princely sum of £48.00 (£40.00 + VAT) to comply with Derbyshire Police's request.

If there is no medical reason for a report then refuse to pay it, the firearms certification department has no power to enforce this or use it as grounds to with hold the processing of the application.

I did see this mentioned a few times but that some forces (not Derbyshire from what I could see) are now insisting they need to have the medical report.

Isn't the issue that they need to verify there is 'no medical reason' and just taking my word for it isn't good enough?

The agreed process is that the drs are supposed to flag up any potential issues, you give the certification department authority to access your records when you apply, if there are any issues flagged up then the certification department can ask for further medical evidence with you can be asked to pay for. Once again we were shafted by our "national" bodies on that, also greedy unprofessional GPs just see it as a way of making money or pursuing their anti gun agenda.

Durham are doing this at present but when challenged they back down saying there is no way they can enforce this as it it is not agreed practice. They are just trying to cover their backs if a certificate holder goes mental, they can say that the gp said they were fit to have firearms. It is just blame avoidance and does nothing to improve public safety, the GPs just see it as another way of them lining their pockets.

Gotcha, so would you recommend contacting the FEO and explaining the situation or just simply not paying and see what happens? I wouldn't want it to gather dust while they wait for a report that isn't going to arrive...

I would ask the certification department what agreed procedure this is they are using as the basis for this request.

Righto - will give them a call tomorrow.

Cheers!

I recently renewed my FAC with Lancashire Police. 8 weeks for the process which is pretty much what they stated but that did include the Christmas Holiday period. No issues with GP fees or the like. Pretty painless really.

Regards LL