From:
Karen Robertson
Sent: 05 September 2010 11:42
Subject: Firearms control:
deadline for submissions extended
Shooting
community crashes Westminster
computers as deadline for firearms control submissions is extended.
After
being “swamped” with evidence from the shooting community, the Home Affairs
Select Committee on firearms control is prompted to extend the deadline for
submissions.
The Committee on firearms control experienced such a large volume of emails
from members of the shooting community, submitting evidence to the current
inquiry, that its computers crashed last week.
On the day of the deadline, last Friday 27 August, such was the volume of
submissions from shooters seeking to put the case for legitimate shooting
sports to MPs on the committee, that the office is still attempting to clear
the backlog.
The clerk of the committee, Elizabeth Flood, has asked those who are unsure
whether their submission got through to resend them.
She told Shooting
Times magazine: “We don’t normally receive so many
emails from individuals. We were, for want of a better word, swamped. Unless
people received an email notice from us apologising and acknowledging receipt
of their submission, they should resend it but please put a note to say you
have sent it twice so we avoid duplication.”
The clerk confirmed that by the end of July the Committee had already received
more than 300 submissions, the most since the 2008 HASC inquiry into domestic
violence.
Evidence for the firearms control committee looks set to break that record with
hundreds more coming in on the day of the deadline itself.
The average number of submissions to a Select Committee inquiry is about
40.
As a result of the huge volume of emailed evidence, Elizabeth Flood explained
that the deadline would be extended: “The 27th was an administrative deadline.
People are welcome to submit evidence throughout the inquiry, which will go on
into October. It is wise to get it in as early as you can, however. We will collate
the evidence as it comes in and present it to MPs who will begin to look at it
when they return to Parliament after the party conferences end around October
11.”
BASC’s Simon Clarke said: "The overwhelming level of responses sent in to
the Home Affairs Select Committee matches our experience of replies copied to
BASC and we believe it is a reflection of the seriousness with which everyone
who shoots is treating this inquiry. Given the apparent failure in the email
systems used to collect responses, it is right that the Committee will consider
evidence sent in after the initial deadline. Anyone who has not yet taken the
time to send in a response should do so quickly and a guide to submitting
evidence can be found on the BASC website.”
Visit
the BASC website at www.basc.org.uk |