One of those collaborations is the management of shotgun licences, but Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire were criticised earlier this year for “significant” backlogs in dealing with applications for those weapons.
The HM Inspectorate of Constabulary found more than 2,000 unanswered emails from applicants and issued an “accelerated cause of concern” saying the collaboration’s management of licensing was not keeping the public safe.
Tizard said: “I think we all owe a big apology to those who hold guns legally for what has been a failure of service for the last two years.
“I’m pleased to say the backlog is falling, but needs to fall in a responsible way as we don’t want to simply issue licences quickly if we’re not making the right checks.
“We are putting AI technology in which will help speed up the process considerably and there’s a new national firearms scheme being introduced by the government.”