| FAC or SGC renewal or initial application
I have seen so many posts on here and other forums relating to applications and renewals for FACs and SGCs that have no concern for what the Police are or are not allowed to do. Before you apply or before you renew your certificates write to your Doctor approximately as per the letter below. This will safeguard your personal information and also provide you with full details of whatever the Police receive. Should there then be a problem with your application you at least have the same starting point to counter the argument as they do.
Suggest wording for a letter to your doctor:-
Dear Doctor XXXX,
I am in the process of applying for (the renewal of) my Firearm and Shotgun Certificates and it is now a requirement that I give the police the name and address of my Doctor.
It is possible that the police may contact you and ask you to provide factual details of my medical history. The Home Office has advised that that is all they may ask and that is all they have my signed authority for. They may under no circumstances have access to my medical records nor are they to ask you for an opinion on my suitability to possess firearms.
The Home Office has also said that the police should only need to contact Doctors where there are genuine concerns about an applicant’s health and that if there is a charge for supplying the information it must be paid by the police.
Any request to you from the police will inevitably concern confidential, privileged and personal information. I should therefore be most grateful if you would copy to me any report you may make to the police and also keep me informed of the details of any other contact you may have with them concerning my application. Any charges for this aspect will of course be covered by myself.
Yours sincerely,
| 
Clone Humor 
Linear Mode
