Table 4: Shot gun certificates : New applications (granted and refused) and certificates on issue at 31 December, 1996-2005
Scotland
Number
Year | Applications for new shot gun certificate | Shot gun certificates on issue at 31 December (1) (2) (3) |
|---|
Granted | Refused |
|---|
1996 | 2,015 | 52 | 66,185 |
|---|
1997 | 1,727 | 34 | 63,215 |
|---|
1998 | 1,494 | 36 | 63,100 |
|---|
1999 | 1,107 | 35 | 62,919 |
|---|
2000 | 1,579 | 52 | 58,627 |
|---|
2001 | 1,806 | 34 | 54,634 |
|---|
2002 | 1,672 | 46 | 51,778 |
|---|
2003 | 1,618 | 38 | 52,421 |
|---|
2004 | 1,369 | 31 | 52,409 |
|---|
2005 | 1,804 | 22 | 51,110 |
|---|
(1) Fife police were unable to supply data for 2005, so 2004 data is included instead. See Annex Note 2.
(2) Grampian police force, up to and including 1998, relied upon a manual auditing system. The year 1999 was the first to be monitored by a dedicated firearms licensing computer and the figures produced for the annual return in January 2000 (for the year 1999) showed serious differences when compared with the previously submitted figures for 1998. The previously produced manual figures relied upon an arithmetical calculation which it is now clear, over the course of many years, produced increasingly inaccurate figures.
(3) In 2001, Lothian & Borders implemented a fully computer-generated firearms certificates statistical return. This resulted in the number of firearm certificates, shotgun certificates (on issue) and registered firearms dealers at 31 December 2001 being recorded as very slightly lower than expected based on the equivalent figures recorded on 31 December 2000.