POLICE are failing to learn lessons from tragedies such as that which wiped out three members of a North-East family, a new report warns.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) said it was highly likely there would be another tragedy unless changes to the process of licensing firearms were made.

On New Year’s Day 2012 taxi driver Michael Atherton, from Horden, County Durham, who had a history of domestic violence, killed three members of his family before shooting himself with a firearm licensed to him by Durham Police.

The force subsequently received stinging criticism from the Independent Police Complaints Commission and Durham coroner Andrew Tweddle who said the four would not have died had there been robust procedures in place to assess Atherton’s suitability for a licence.

In the report HMIC said following an inspection last year Durham Police still did not have any formal monitoring and audit arrangements in respect of decisions to approve firearms licences, while North Yorkshire Police, which was also one of 11 forces inspected for the report, only had “limited” arrangements.

It also highlighted an inconsistent approach in the way some forces contacted the referees of firearm certificate applicants, while other criticisms, included poor record keeping and a failure to take action over expired certificates where no application for renewal had been received.

In March 2014 the national policing lead for firearms licensing wrote to all police forces to prompt retrospective reviews of current firearm certificate holders’ suitability after new guidance was issued.

But the report said the Home Office guidance remained too discretionary in approach, while relevant firearms licensing arrangements were spread across too many different statutes.

It issued 18 separate recommendations to police and the Home Office, including moving from a paper-based application process and simplifying it through digitisation and strengthening arrangements to assess applicants’ medical suitability.

HM Inspector of Constabulary Stephen Otter said: "Lessons from past tragedies have not always been learnt and this fails the victims of those events, including their families, unacceptably.

“Unless things change, we run the risk of further tragedies occurring."

Temporary Chief Inspector Neal Bickford, head of firearms licensing at Durham Police, said it had undertaken a comprehensive review of its procedures and already made a number of improvements.

He said it had already recognised the need to improve auditing further and was also in the process of setting up an external scrutiny panel.

Durham’s Police and Crime Commissioner Ron Hogg said: “This is an area where we have to do our best to get it right every time.

“The force do recognise the need to improve and I will be looking at this very carefully with the Deputy Chief Constable.”

Tim Madgwick, Deputy Chief Constable of North Yorkshire police, said the force was already compliant with nine of the 18 recommendations made.

He said: “The public can be reassured that our firearms licensing department check every certificate holder every day against any incident or intelligence reported, and all certificate holders are under continuous review. “