Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she will make an assessment of trends in levels of fuel theft, such as drive-offs or biking, from petrol stations and the measures that can be taken to tackle the crime.

We would encourage retailers to report any instances of fuel theft to the police.

We are also making it easier for retailers to recover the costs when fuel is taken without payment.

Improvements have recently been made to the service provided by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) allowing fuel retailers and their agents to request information to allow recovery of costs when motorists drive away from fuel stations without paying for the fuel taken.

This provides a quicker and more efficient approach compared with the existing manual service.