Table 5A
Shot gun certificates : Number of cancellations (1)(2), revocations and certificates and percentage on issue at 31 December, 1998 - 2007
Number & Percentage
| 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
|---|
Number of certificates on issue at 31 December (3) (4) | 63,100 | 62,919 | 58,627 | 54,634 | 51,778 | 52,421 | 52,409 | 51,029 | 49,974 | 49,213 |
|---|
Number of cancellations | 1,509 | 1,235 | 5,612 | 5,618 | 4,492 | 1,016 | 1,378 | 3,125 | 2,879 | 2,608 |
|---|
Percentage of number on issue
at end of previous December | 2.4 | 2.0 | 8.9 | 9.6 | 8.2 | 2.0 | 2.6 | 6.0 | 5.6 | 5.2 |
|---|
Number of revocations | 129 | 175 | 102 | 81 | 67 | 78 | 83 | 58 | 77 | 83 |
|---|
Percentage of number on issue
at end of previous December | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
|---|
(1) Figures for 1998, 1999, 2003 and 2004 are affected by changes in regulations. See Annex Note 10.
(2) A software problem on the Firearms Licensing system affected the figures returned by Fife police force in 2005 and 2006 in relation to the data on the numbers of applications, variations and cancellations which are not wholly consistent with the totals shown. The force resolved the problem for the provision of the 2007 data.
(3) 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.
(4) 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 at 31 December 2000.