Recurring concern

Unreliable firearms licensing risk assessment and information sharing

First to latest report 21 Jan 2014 — 10 Feb 2026

Reports that mention this concern
11
Times this concern has been raised
20
Stated actions linked to this concern
33

What this concern includes

Includes failures in firearms or shotgun licensing processes to obtain, share, flag, update, verify or act on safety-relevant information needed to assess an applicant's or licence holder's continuing suitability and control firearm access, including cross-authority notifications, relevant medical or household information, cohabitant enquiries, prosecution alerts and information about additional properties or force areas.

What is not included
  • Excludes firearm storage, handling, operational-use and shooting-practice failures where the firearms licensing risk-assessment or information-sharing process is not deficient.
  • Excludes generic police, healthcare or inter-agency information-sharing failures without an explicit connection to firearms or shotgun licensing decisions or continuing suitability reviews.
  • Excludes clinical assessment or treatment of licence holders where the licensing authority's risk-information process is not the unsafe condition.
  • Excludes failures concerning unrelated weapons, explosives or other licensing regimes unless the assertion explicitly concerns the same firearms or shotgun licensing process.

Reports and published responses 11 reports

See individual reports that have raised this concern, and the actions taken in response

  1. Wiltshire and Swindon

    AI-generated summary

    William Howard DOWLING and Victoria Elaine ROSE · Prevention of Future Deaths report

    This summary was generated using AI from the published report. Please read the original report for the complete account.

    Report summary

    On 2 March 2013, William Howard Dowling shot Victoria Elaine Rose twice in the head before shooting himself in the head. The report raised concerns about information sharing between general practitioners and firearms licensing authorities, the wider public-safety implications of confidentiality, and the independence and transparency of firearms licensing decisions involving current or former police employees.

    Read the report on judiciary.uk

    Source evidence

    How this individual concern was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Lack of arrangements enabling doctors to report relevant information during firearms licence terms

    Wider context from the report

    “(1) During the course of the hearing I heard evidence from ███████ Wiltshire Police Firearms Licensing Manager, who indicated to me that at the present moment in time aside from a letter (copy attached marked A – since July 2011) which is sent to General Practitioners when firearms licence applications are successful or where they are renewed, giving a doctor the opportunity to relay relevant information in relation to their patient within 14 days, there is currently no memorandum of understanding or legislation that allows doctors the ability during the duration of the term of a firearms license, which stands at 5 years, to report matters which may have a bearing on that patient’s suitability to hold a firearms license and possess firearms. Doctors of course are bound at the present moment in time by patient confidentiality. I am concerned that this restriction may impede the firearms authority from making crucial decisions as regards individuals possessing firearms and continuing to hold a firearms licence in circumstances which, at present, may not come before the attention of the Firearms Authority unless the matter has ordinarily come before the police’s attention as a consequence of other aspects of their duties. In evidence from ███████ she made me aware that Wiltshire Police through the cooperation of NHS Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group and two Doctor’s Surgeries were piloting a scheme (directly prompted Victoria’s two sons as a result of his tragedy) effective from September 2013, to allow an increase in the sharing of information in particular having a bearing on the suitability of an individual to hold a firearms licence. She indicated that as a result of this pilot scheme an individual’s firearms were taken away at short notice as a result of the information received from the General Practitioner. This pilot scheme seems to me to be an utterly sensible idea although at present it is a pilot scheme and is not a national concept. This ought to be urgently reviewed. ”

    Source location

    William Howard DOWLING and Victoria Elaine ROSE · Prevention of Future Deaths report
    Page 2 · concerns

    Open source report

Actions and positions describe what organisations say in published responses. Implementation is not independently verified.

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Data last updated 7 September 2026