British Shooting Sports Council

APSI is a member of the British Shooting Sports Council, an umbrella body which brings together Britain’s major shooting associations to achieve consensus positions on political and legislative issues affecting the shooting sports. It is a non-profit making organisation financed by its member associations’ subscriptions.

The Council’s object is to promote and safeguard the lawful possession and use of firearms and air weapons for sporting and recreational purposes in the United Kingdom amongst all sections of society.

The Council’s focus is upon the legislation and regulation which affects shooting sports, and especially the lawful possession of firearms. It draws together representatives from the entire range of shooting disciplines, from competitive clay target shooting and rifle shooting, both smallbore and fullbore, to airgun shooting, practical shooting, muzzle loading and live quarry shooting with rifle, shotgun and air rifle in all its various aspects. Fully involved in the Council’s work are organisations representing shooting grounds, shooting instructors and the gun trade.

Meetings of the Council are held three or four times a year, receiving recommendations from BSSC’s key Technical and Research Committee and its Finance & General Purposes Committee. Representation of the Council’s views is undertaken by the Secretary.

In a sport as diverse as shooting there is frequently a wide range of opinions, and while the Council will always seek to present a unified voice on issues of importance through consent and co-operation, member associations are free to express their own views or conduct their own lobbying and representation in parallel to BSSC’s work.

Working with a range of Government departments and agencies, the Council addresses proposals which may affect sport shooting and its supporting industries across the United Kingdom. It keeps in direct touch with national politicians of all parties and endeavours to help them understand the sport, for example through facilitating visits to the National Shooting Centre at Bisley and through giving evidence to House of Commons Committees.

BSSC maintains particularly close working relations with Home Office Ministers and officials over a wide range of matters relating to firearms legislation. It works with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on wildlife management issues and game laws, the Department of Transport over movement of sporting firearms and ammunition, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport on the Olympic Games and target shooting, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office about arms trade issues and the Health and Safety Executive on the regulations affecting shooters’ use of propellant powders and explosives. Increasingly it is becoming drawn into the work of the UK’s devolved administrations.

Membership
APSI, BASC, CPSA, GTA, NRA, MLAGB, NSRA, Sportsman’s Association, UKPSA, HBSA, CA, ICSI, DWA, VAA, 50 cal SA

BSSC Report by Chris Miles, 19 June 2024

There will likely be effects of the General Election, including the present BSSC Chairman (Jonathan Djanogly) being de-selected and no longer an MP, but I am expecting him to remain as BSSC Chairman until the 2025 AGM.

Value of Shooting report

This document has been a long time in production and, although there are a few points that are missed or incorrectly expressed, it is an important document which sets out hard facts about the employment and economical benefits achieved in the buoyant area of shooting sports, shooting industry and the knock-on benefits of all the linked support industries.

However, it has been noticed that there could have been more said about target sports, young shots and from our own point of view, I believe that the area of shooting instruction, including introducing newcomers to the sport, competition coaching and game coaching both on the shooting ground and in the field, amount to a substantial area that has been neglected.

Graham Downing was highly critical of the original draft some months ago and pressed for many improvements, but not everything was taken on board.

The VoS report was going to be launched at the 2024 Game Fair (having been postponed from the 2023 Game Fair), but if it had not been launched now, prior to the General Election, it’s value would gave become much weaker.

This is a document which can be used to illustrate the participation, employment and economic contribution to the economy, but we must learn from its omissions and my feeling is that there will not be support for a future, updated version.

To view & download the report, please go here Value of Shooting Report

Fees order (tied in with a service level agreement)

As you will be aware, there had not been any cost-of-living increases to licensing costs since 2016 and the draft review last year, circulated in a restricted capacity, was talking about 100% plus increases, including an amount to cover mid-term inspections (for which there is no legal provision).

Strong representation to the Minister from Jonathan Djanogly, Sir Bill Wiggin and Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown had brought about a much better agreement for a Fees Order, based on cost of living instead of figures apparently plucked out of the air. This was to be linked to a Service Level Agreement to improve the service provided by the Police (or not)

This Fees Order was progressing rapidly through Parliament and was expected to be good news for us before an autumn General Election. It has come to a full stop now that the election has been called for July 4^th

De-regulating of sound moderators.

The Home Office and Police agreed two years ago that sound-moderators should come off FAC’s. The public consultation had closed, and the Statutory Reform Order had been promulgated. Again, due to the election, progress has halted.

176,00- licensed sound moderators, plus exchanges and upgrades, take up a lot of administration time which could be more usefully used.

National Police Chiefs Council training programme for Licensing Managers and FEO’s.

This is being assembled by three police persons, Adrian Davis (Chief Constable D Tedds ADC), Chris Downs, former lead person from Met Police Licensing and Pip Taylor from Sussex Police and you will see from the e-mail from Adrian Davis that progress is being made.

Unauthorised forms

1. A form to be filled in by persons who act as a referee for FAC and SGC applicants, has been introduced by the Met. We have objected to this and Nick Hunt, from the Home Office is looking into it.
2. A request from the Met to RFD’s to obtain the medical records of persons named as ‘Servants’ of the RFD has also been objected to by BSSC.

Proposed ban on lead shot

The consultation staged by the HSE received over 8,000 responses and the HSE are still not ready to issue their response/proposals. Most of us expect their proposals not to be good news, especially for clay shooters who shoot for pleasure, training for live quarry shooting or those aspiring to qualify for National and International teams. It is expected that there will be some provision for elite shooters, but how do they achieve that categorisation?  Will there be enough demand for cartridge manufacturers to continue and will clay shooting grounds be able to maintain enough business to be viable?

There is also the question of provisions for older shotguns.

Ten-year Licence.

We were making good progress in rolling out the medical letter and medical record firearms marker and the present Minister has been supportive.

However, there have been a couple of objections and although we are experiencing a ‘hiccup’ in the procedure, we are still hopeful of achieving it.

Retirement of the BSSC Secretary

At the end of the last BSSC Council meeting, on May 9^th, Graham Downing announced that, as he becomes seventy years old this coming October, he will be retiring from the position of BSSC Secretary, certainly by the end of 2024.

As Treasurer of BSSC, classed as an Officer of BSSC, I am involved in discussions with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman to find a successor, including confirmation of job description and duties.

The Vice-Chairman has informed me that he still has the paperwork from prior to Graham’s election, when BASC offered to provide the BSSC Secretariat.