This Supplementary Order Paper amends the Arms Legislation Bill. It changes the requirement for the separate storage of a vital part of a prohibited firearm to be the same as that for restricted firearms, requiring that the firearm be rendered inoperable by the removal of a vital part but that the vital part does not have to be stored at a separate physical address.

We have a bizarre situation at the moment where a fully automatic assault rifle (such as an M16) can have a firing element removed and securely stored at the same physical location, whereas a variant which is only semi-automatic has to have that element stored at a physically separate location.