Medical Certificate Report – Shotgun & Firearms Licence UK ShootCert

Yes – ShootCert provides the latest format of medical certificates as per the Home Office and Firearm Department template guidance and recommendations.

We can only offer assistance via this website’s contact form and by email. We don’t publish an email address on this website so use the contact form in the first instance and we would be happy to help. All enquiries, questions, and conversations are in writing and therefore we can trace back to previous correspondence if required. In some circumstances, the verifying Doctor may call you or your GP to expedite some complex situations.

• In some rare cases, when ShootCert cannot provide a medical certificate due to an individual’s highly complex medical history, we may not be able to offer the service for our standard fee. In these cases, we provide a full refund.
• If an applicant chooses to cancel their application for whatever reason, we do not provide a refund in these cases.

No, we cannot accept your notes in this format because there’s no way we could tell if something was missing.

In a small minority of cases, some GP practices want to charge fees for sending your medical notes to ShootCert however according to the BASC legal team:

“Charges for SARs may only be made if the request is “manifestly unfounded or excessive” but a request for a patient’s full notes has been held by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as NOT being excessive”.

We will negotiate with your GP as effectively as we can to move things on to avoid excessive fees. In most cases, they are happy to comply. For practices that ultimately refuse to send your notes, ShootCert will share the practice details with BASC who are collecting data for their legal campaign.

The Police prefer your complete medical notes to be sent digitally direct from your GP to ShootCert. In some cases – practices only have a hard copy of your notes. These should be sent directly to ShootCert from your GP using a tracked postal service to:

ShootCert
PO Box 1700
NORTHAMPTON
NN2 1LE

They can be given to you to forward on to ShootCert however they MUST remain unopened in the GP’s original sealed envelope. If collecting your sealed notes from your GP, they may require a consultation beforehand and your ID. Any deviation from these requirements can mean the verifying doctor is unable to produce your medical certificate.

If you already have your medical notes as a hard copy in your possession, read this answer.

Yes, we can return your hard-copy medical notes to you. There is a fee of £10 to cover admin and postage. Use our online form here: https://www.shootcert.co.uk/admin-payment-form/

Yes. It is a requirement by the Home Office and Police firearm departments that a medical certificate provided by a verifying doctor has a GMC number and a current license to practice as either a GP or is on the Specialist Register with the General Medical Council (GMC) medical register: Learn more. Our medical certificates are accepted by all Police firearm departments in England and Wales.

Your medical certificate will be sent to you. You must then add it to your shotgun/firearm application to send to your Police Firearms Department.

Generally speaking – for shotgun/firearm certificate renewals – the Police want you to apply about 5 months before your certificate runs out.

In the case of first-time AND renewal applications, an increasing number of Police Firearms Departments now require your entire medical history to be verified – even if your application is for a renewal. Therefore, to avoid delays as policies quickly change, ShootCert will – as of Jan 1st 2022 – require your entire medical history for every application type regardless of which Police Firearms Department you are applying to. Our requirements are clearly worded in the pre-written letter of consent that will be sent to you and your GP after you have successfully applied and paid with ShootCert.

This all depends on your GP and how long it takes them to send us your medical notes. Please see our How It Works page which is a guide to the expected timeline. For all renewal applications, apply early.

Every 5 years

https://basc.org.uk/firearms/applying-for-a-firearmshotgun-certificate/

The link also includes a list of all the firearms licensing contacts (England and Wales)

The Home Office statutory guidance for Chief Officers of Police states that when our medical certificate is being provided to the Police firearms department, our doctor MUST have received the patient’s medical notes direct from the GP practice and not via the applicant. This is simply to ensure that the medical notes that the verifying doctor at ShootCert receives are authentic, complete and unmodified. However, in some circumstances we can accept medical notes in your possession as long as the following is adhered to:

Hard Copy Medical Notes:
If the medical records in your possession are a hard copy, they MUST be in the GP’s original sealed envelope and unopened. Put the envelope in a sturdy/padded bag and send it to:

ShootCert
PO Box 1700
NORTHAMPTON
NN2 1LE

Use a tracked postal service to ensure safe delivery. Your medical records must be the latest copy of your entire medical history and not just a summary.

PDF or other file formats
If the medical notes in your possession are in a digital format such as a PDF or other format – we CANNOT accept these. This is because there is no way of knowing if the files are authentic or the complete medical notes. In some cases – if that is all that is available. ShootCert has a responsibility to inform the Police that the medical notes have NOT come from the GP but from the patient. This could delay your application or it could mean that your application for a shotgun/firearm application is rejected.

Physical media such as CD’s & USB Sticks
In exceptional circumstances, some GP’s will provide digital files on physical media to the patient. If you have physical media in your possession it MUST be in the GP’s original sealed envelope and unopened. Pop the envelope in a sturdy/padded type envelope and send to ShootCert using a signed/tracked postal service. Please send to the address above.

• Our application fee is £60
• If you require your medical certificate posting to you as a hard-copy, add £3.95
• If you require your hard-copy medical notes returning to you, the admin and postage fee is £10

From the date of your application, if we haven’t heard from your GP within 25 days, you will receive an email notification from ShootCert. This is to prompt you to get in touch with your GP to move things on with your SAR.  If we still haven’t heard from them after 5 to 10 days after our reminder, please let us know and we will send you a letter for your GP to remind them of their legal obligation to comply.

Your medical notes are kept on file for approximately 4 months. This is so we can refer back to them should the Police query a certificate and application. After this period they are deleted. Hard copy records are incinerated unless you want them returned to you. Your application data is archived securely. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about how ShootCert handles your data.

Subject Access Request (SAR) – is the term used for accessing your personal data:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/right-of-access/

We can only take payments from your debit or credit card via our website.
We cannot accept card payments over the phone, cheques, bank transfers, or PayPal.

All card payments are processed by Stripe. You do not need an account with Stripe.

We take the security and reliability of email delivery seriously. Outbound email notifications from shootcert.co.uk are authenticated using SendGrid to preserve our domain reputation and optimum inbox delivery at scale. Occasionally though, some mail providers are cautious about letting some emails pass through their firewall and security measures. Our notifications from our website can end up in your spam or junk folder. If nothing is in your inbox or spam folder, let us know using our contact form. We can easily resend any correspondence you may have missed.