Since the Keyham tragedy in 2021, I have campaigned for stronger gun laws to prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again.

I’m glad to say we took a step forward this week: a new law to improve firearms licensing has been approved by Parliament.

From February, police forces will have extra resources to make firearms licensing decisions more robust and cut worrying backlogs. This will be paid for by charging firearms applicants the full cost of processing their application and running safety checks (still a modest fee). This new law is vital for police forces nationwide, but especially here in Devon and Cornwall where the Keyham Inquest showed ‘catastrophic failings’ in firearms licensing.

The last government kicked reforms like this into the long grass, so I am pleased the new Policing Minister has got straight to work with changes to gun laws.