Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the number of convictions for theft of catalytic converters from motor vehicles.

Acquisitive crime is when the offender derives material gain from the crime, such as theft, burglary, fraud and robbery. Acquisitive crime, which includes catalytic converter theft, is a Home Office responsibility. Nonetheless the Government is committed to tackling the theft of catalytic converters, working closely with police and motor manufacturers through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group, established by the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for vehicle crime and overseen by the Government’s Crime and Justice Taskforce, to determine what more can be done.

The Government enacted the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 which has been instrumental in tackling this crime. The Government also funded the set-up of the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership (NICRP), which ensures national co-ordination of policing and law enforcement partners to tackle metal theft, including the theft of catalytic converters. It provides training to law enforcement and other partner agencies, shares intelligence to target offenders, and implements crime prevention measures. The British Transport Police, through the NICRP, has conducted two national weeks of actions, which resulted in 64 arrests, over 1,400 stopped vehicles and over 1,000 catalytic converters and other items of stolen property were recovered.