Plans for gun licence price hike withdrawn

Plans to increase firearms licensing fees, that sparked a fierce backlash from the rural community, have been withdrawn.

A Department of Justice consultation had been seeking views on raising the cost of a five-year firearm certificate from £98 to £250.

Campaigners have welcomed the withdrawal saying the proposal had caused ""widespread concern".

Justice minister Naomi Long said she hoped ending the consultation would help provide space to find a way forward "as the current situation is not sustainable".

The consultation had been seeking views on proposals to achieve full cost recovery of firearms licensing.

Answering questions in the assembly this month, Long had said it cost the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) £2m to subsidise applications last year at a time of increased budget pressures.

UFU deputy president Glenn Cuddy said the scale of the increase was "simply not justified and would have placed unfair additional costs on farmers at a time when they are already under immense pressure".

The consultation opened on 30 March but this week Long said her department had since "received feedback… seeking additional information and raising concerns on related matters".

"Having considered those issues and in light of recent advice from officials, I have decided to withdraw the consultation at this time," she said.

While firearms licensing fees continue to be "heavily subsidised from the core PSNI budget", Long said, it was important to "address the concerns raised".

"I hope that by withdrawing the current consultation, it will provide the space for positive engagement, in good faith, to find a way forward as the current situation is not sustainable."

Cuddy said guns are not "recreational for farmers".

Instead, they are an essential part of rural life and used in pest control, livestock protection and land management, he said.

"That distinction was not properly recognised within the consultation," Cuddy said, adding the UFU also had concerns "around the evidence" and a "limited data exercise" used to justify the price hike.

"The minister has indicated that a new approach to firearms licensing fees will now be developed in conjunction with stakeholders. The UFU expects agriculture to be fully represented as part of that process."

While a firearms certificate in Northern Ireland currently costs £98, the cost to the police of processing an application is usually much higher.

Last year, the Policing Board published figures that revealed the PSNI's firearms and explosives branch had lost £2m processing firearm certificates.

In response to a question asked in May 2025, the PSNI said it generated £1.3m through firearms registration payments, but that processing applications cost £3,295,000 - creating a financial shortfall of £1,995,000.

As of January 2025, 53,000 people held firearms licences in Northern Ireland.

BBC News NI contacted the PSNI about the matter but it did not wish to comment.

Farmer Thomas Conway, from Park, said like many, he could not understand why the proposed increase was by "such a colossal amount".

The licensing system as it is, he told BBC News NI, was "not without its problems, not without delays, but it is stringent and one of the best in Europe".

"Personally I think I could understand a 5% or 10% increase," he said.

"But when what is being proposed is such a huge rise, and with no details or evidence as to how it would improve the system, that has been very concerning."

The withdrawal of the consultation, he added, "certainly is welcome news".

Long said her officials will now "seek to engage with stakeholders to understand the concerns raised".

They will develop new proposals to "inform a new consultation", Long added, which she said "will launch at a later date".