NI gun laws: PSNI spends £1m a year running gun licence system

The police are subsidising Northern Ireland's firearms licensing system by about £1m a year, according to figures from the Department of Justice.

Under new reforms, the cost of a gun licence is set to almost double from £50 to £98, in a bid to reduce the PSNI's bill for overseeing the system.

The age that a child can fire a shotgun in a shooting range will fall to 12 under the Department of Justice plans.

There are more than 160,000 legally held firearms in Northern Ireland.

Justice Minister David Ford told the BBC that the PSNI should not be picking up the bill for the licensing system.

"The simple position is that public services like this are supposed to be provided at full cost recovery.

"In fact, because of opposition within the assembly, we're not going to be recovering full costs.

"On any other public service, that's the basis on which things operate and I think that would have been appropriate.

"I don't think we should see the police budget having to subsidise the cost of shooting licences," the minister said.

Under the changes, Mr Ford's Department of Justice also intends to reduce from 18 to 16 the age that young people can get a gun licence for a shotgun to shoot vermin.

Under its proposals, 12-year olds will be allowed to fire shotguns for sporting purposes under supervision.