§ Lord Marlesfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
When work started on the establishment of a central register, as required under Section 39 of the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 which came into force on 1 October 1997, of persons who have applied for a firearm or shotgun certificate or to whom a firearm or shotgun certificate has been granted; and whether they will estimate the total cost of the work and the date on which the central register will be in operation. [HL4069]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Bassam of Brighton)Work on the establishment of the central register began in October 1998 with the establishment of a project team to produce a user requirement. Development work will start in November. The date on which it will come into operation is currently being re-assessed because project timescales may be affected by concurrent work on the development of the DNA database. The impact assessment completed earlier this year estimated that the project would require some 1,400 person clays to complete and would also require additional disk capacity costing £50,000. The Government remain committed to the development of the register, as required by the 1997 Act.