Firearms licensing: Shotgun certificates
Coterminous Shotgun Certificates
The idea of "coterminous" shotgun certificates, is to allow the holder of a firearms certificate, to have his shotgun certificate expire on the same day.
Where shotgun and firearm certificates grants are applied for at the same time, this will obviously be the case. However, many holders of one style of certificate, often make an application for the other style of certificate during the life time of the original.
This means that there would be two separate dates for renewal and two lots of fees to pay. By linking the expiry dates of both certificates the former problem is eliminated and the subsequent overall fee is reduced.
Please note that the reduced fee only comes into effect when both certificates are dealt with at the same time. This arrangement obviously reduces police time and expense resulting in a saving being passed to the applicant.
If the holder of a firearm certificate applies for the grant of a shotgun certificate, before his firearm certificate expires, he can request a coterminous shotgun certificate. This would mean that his new shotgun certificate would not run its full life span (currently five years), but would expire on the same date as the firearms certificate. The cost of the new shotgun certificate would be the full price (currently £50), but the subsequent renewal would be reduced (currently £10).
If the holder of a firearms certificate applies for the grant of a shotgun certificate at the same time as requesting renewal of his firearms certificate, then the reduced fee for the shotgun certificate comes into effect straight away, as both certificates are being dealt with together.
Please note that it is only the expiry date of the shotgun certificate which can be brought forward, firearm certificate expiry dates cannot be altered to coincide with shotgun certificates.
However, if the holder of a shotgun certificate applies for the grant of a firearm certificate, he has three options:
- Firstly, he can apply for the grant of the firearm certificate at the same time as renewing his shotgun certificate, thus taking advantage of the reduced fee for the latter.
- Secondly, he can apply for the grant of the firearm certificate and wait and renew his shotgun certificate coterminously when it expires, paying the full fee on this occasion but a reduced fee on the next renewal.
- Thirdly, he can surrender his shotgun certificate early and apply for renewal which would be issued on the same day as his new firearms certificate, and pay the reduced fee for the shotgun certificate.
New fees came into force on 1st January 2001
Existing certificates expiring on or after this date, and new applications received on or after this date, will be subject to the following charges.
The following is a full list of possible permutations with subsequent fees; the second column shows that once the expiry dates of your shotgun and your firearm are linked the subsequent certificate costs are lower compared to certificates with
separate expiry dates (third column):
| Certificates | Linked and expiry dates | Separate expiry dates |
|---|---|---|
| Grant of Firearm Grant of Shotgun |
£60.00 (Certificates granted at the same time.) £50+£10 |
£100.00 (Shotgun certificate granted at a date after grant of Firearm certificate.) £50+£50 |
| Grant of Firearm Renewal of Shotgun |
£60.00 (Certificates granted at the same time.) £50+£10 |
£90.00 (Shotgun certificate renewed at a date after grant of Firearm certificate.) £50+£40 |
| Renewal of Firearm Grant of Shotgun |
£50.00 (Certificates granted at the same time.) £40+£10 |
£90.00 (Shotgun certificate granted at a date after renewal of Firearm certificate.) £40+£50 |
| Renewal of Firearm Renewal of Shotgun |
£50.00 (Certificates granted at the same time.) £40+£10 |
£80.00 (Shotgun certificate renewed at a date after renewal of Firearm certificate.) £40+£40 |