Comment by Gillian McKenzie
‘Carnage’, ‘meltdown’, ‘timebomb’ – just some of the words used as the inaugural deadlines for personal licence holder refresher training approached last year and it became apparent that thousands of PLHs across Scotland were likely to miss the boat.
A partial ‘reprieve’ was granted to some as a number of boards allowed those who had missed the notification deadline a period within which to surrender the licence and, therefore, avoid revocation and the five-year ‘ban’ on applying for a new one.
Thousands of others, however, faced a five-year wait to submit a fresh application.
Thankfully, politicians appeared to take the trade’s concerns on board and drafted yet more legislation to scrap the ban; the Air Weapons and Licensing Act received royal assent earlier this month and, while many of the measures have yet to come into force, the ban on applying for a new licence was removed with immediate effect.
It means PLHs who had their licence revoked for failing to notify their board of completed refresher training in time can now apply for a new licence, as long as they meet the requirements and pay the associated costs.
The move has, understandably, been welcomed by the trade.
Of course many licence holders should have acted sooner to complete refresher training and notify their board in time.
But banning them from applying for a new licence for five years was excessive to say the least.
