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Statistical Bulletin Crime and Justice Series: Firearm Certificates Statistics, Scotland, 2007

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Table 4
Shot gun certificates : New applications (granted and refused) and certificates on issue at 31 December, 1998-2007

Scotland
Number

Year

Applications (1) for new
shot gun certificate

Shot gun certificates on
issue at 31 December (2) (3)

Number of shot guns
held on certificate

Granted

Refused

1998

1,494

36

63,100

129,563

1999

1,107

35

62,919

127,494

2000

1,579

52

58,627

123,994

2001

1,806

34

54,634

121,472

2002

1,672

46

51,778

122,551

2003

1,618

38

52,421

125,395

2004

1,369

31

52,409

129,218

2005

1,833

26

51,029

129,630

2006

1,844

18

49,974

132,181

2007

1,860

31

49,213

133,940

(1) 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.

(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.

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