That's the current practice because in most cases where we are doing licence verification, both parties tend to be present so that the seller has all of the related information because we don't just ask for the licence number of the buyer. We ask for the licence number. We ask for the date of birth. We ask for the expiry date of the licence. We ask for the version code. We want to actually ensure that the seller physically has the licence card of the buyer, or that the buyer is, in fact, right there and present.
In that situation, if we were not able to issue the reference number, we would simply communicate to the seller that the buyer needs to contact the chief firearms officer. If the buyer is, in fact, there, we would communicate it directly to him or her.