We wanted to include some of the of the impact we’ve had over the past few years through our campaign…
Following our participation in the ‘Specialist Firearms Command CPD Event’ held by the MET Police in early November 2022, we received resoundingly positive feedback from participating units in support of our campaign.
Some of the attending units included:
GP Digital Marker System
With the support of former Police Minister ‘The Rt Hon Kit Malthouse MP’, our campaign helped to implement the new digital marker for GP systems. This marker should be applied to the records of everyone who holds a gun licence. Once applied to a patient’s record, it will flag that they have a firearms licence and automatically alert doctors if there has been a relevant change in their medical situation
There is still a long way to go and the digital marker system is far from perfect, and whilst there is still no formal obligation on the GP aside from using ‘reasonable endeavours’ to supported the process its highly likely that individuals will be missed.
At the request of the British Medical Association (BMA), the statutory guidance now states that doctors are responsible for providing reports of medical facts (not opinions), with the police force ultimately making the final judgement on the issuing of the firearms licence.
However, it’s a step in the right direction. We now need GP’s to properly commissioned and contracted for their crucial role in this process (at the licensee’s expense)
