Medical information not disclosed to firearms licensing authority
National Police Chiefs' Council received 2 coroners' reports about this hazard between 21 Jan 2014 and 8 Aug 2024.
They came from 2 different coroners in 2 coroner areas. A similar concern was raised again 1 time after the first warning.
No published response from National Police Chiefs' Council was found for the earlier reports.
The story, report by report
Spacing grows with the time between reports.
“there is currently no memorandum of understanding or legislation that allows doctors the ability during the duration of the term of a firearms license, which stands at 5 years, to report matters which may have a bearing on that patient's suitability to hold a firearms license”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ No published response from National Police Chiefs' Council was found for this report.
- 10 years 7 months laterClosely relatedConfidence 0.85 · higha different coroner
“An applicant for a shotgun certificate is able to obtain medication from an on-line doctor without the knowledge of their GP, giving rise to a risk that a licensing authority might grant a shotgun certificate to an applicant who has a relevant previous medical history about which the authority is not aware.”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ National Police Chiefs' Council responded, stating 3 specific actions.Response (PDF) ↗Response (PDF) ↗Response (PDF) ↗
“We have worked closely with the Home Office and the British Medical Association to ensure there are strong controls in place in relation to an applicant's medical suitability which is one element of the application process that the police consider when deciding if an applicant can hold a firearms or shotgun certificate. An applicant is required to declare all relevant medical conditions upon applying and they must provide details of their GP. A proforma is then completed by their GP or an independent”
Stated timescale: May 2023
“We will update our own guidance to reflect that this potential gap exists if external prescribers are not sharing information, or have not been supplied by the patient with information that would be relevant”
1 more stated action in the Promises tab.
- All reports to National Police Chiefs' Council
Each row is one judged link between an earlier and a later report. Open a row to read both quotes, found word for word in the originals.
2014 → 2024Emma Ellette and George Pattison10 years 7 months after William Dowling & Victoria Rose · different coronerClosely relatedConfidence 0.85 · high
Closely relatedConfidence 0.85 · highBoth reports highlight a gap in the flow of medical information to firearms licensing authorities that could allow unsuitable individuals to retain or obtain firearms. The earlier report notes the absence of a formal process for GPs to disclose relevant patient details during a licence term, while the later report points out that applicants can conceal medical history by using online doctors.
William Dowling & Victoria Rose · 21 Jan 2014
“there is currently no memorandum of understanding or legislation that allows doctors the ability during the duration of the term of a firearms license, which stands at 5 years, to report matters which may have a bearing on that patient's suitability to hold a firearms license”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Emma Ellette and George Pattison · 8 Aug 2024
“An applicant for a shotgun certificate is able to obtain medication from an on-line doctor without the knowledge of their GP, giving rise to a risk that a licensing authority might grant a shotgun certificate to an applicant who has a relevant previous medical history about which the authority is not aware.”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗
No published response from National Police Chiefs' Council was found for this report.
Stated action · timescale: May 2023
“We have worked closely with the Home Office and the British Medical Association to ensure there are strong controls in place in relation to an applicant's medical suitability which is one element of the application process that the police consider when deciding if an applicant can hold a firearms or shotgun certificate. An applicant is required to declare all relevant medical conditions upon applying and they must provide details of their GP. A proforma is then completed by their GP or an independent”
Stated action
“We will update our own guidance to reflect that this potential gap exists if external prescribers are not sharing information, or have not been supplied by the patient with information that would be relevant”
Stated action · timescale: November 2024
“We are also introducing a new FEO Report Form for national use which will require more comprehensive detailing of enquiries undertaken, information received (from in person interviews, police systems and wider investigations deemed appropriate on each individual application) and the rationale for their view on suitability.”
- Each report's concerns were extracted by Nemotron 3 Nano on Nebius Token Factory, each with a quote copied from the report.
- Concerns from reports to National Police Chiefs' Council at least six months apart were compared by meaning (Qwen3 embeddings) and wording (TF-IDF).
- The closest pairs were judged by Nemotron 3 Super with reasoning on. Only identical or closely related, with confidence of at least 0.70, are shown.
- Every quote was checked by code as an exact substring of the original text. Names of staff and family are redacted, and the deceased are named by report title only.
| Link | Meaning | Wording | Judge | Coroner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 → 2024 | 0.73 | 0.08 | Closely related · 0.85 | different |
Judge model: nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b. How Nemotron did the work · Full methodology.
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This shows that a similar concern was raised again after an earlier report. It does not say why, and it is not a finding about any organisation or person. To report an error, see the corrections route.