The annual Home Office statistics on firearms and shotguns have been published for 2019/20, highlighting steady participation in shooting sports in the UK.
There were 159,483 firearm certificates on issue as at 31 March 2020, a decrease of 262 compared with the previous year - which was the highest number of firearm certificates on issue since comparable records began in 2009. The annual report also showed that an average of 3.8 firearms were held on a firearms certificate, and that the average number of firearms held on a certificate has shown a steady increase in the past decade.
Of over 600,000 licensed firearms, the majority (58 per cent) were rifles used for target shooting or pest control.