Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the implications for her policies of the increase in the theft of (a) laurel plants and (b) other horticultural stock from rural properties; and what steps are being taken to support (i) police forces and (ii) affected communities in tackling this form of rural crime.

This Government is introducing comprehensive policing reforms to strengthen neighbourhood policing and ensure forces have the capability to respond to the crimes that matter most to their communities, including in rural areas.

Through the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, every community, rural or urban will have named, contactable officers and stronger local policing presence, with forces supported to deliver an additional 13,000 neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament. By February 2026, we had delivered more than 3,100 additional police officers and PCSOs into neighbourhood roles. The first-year growth target was first exceeded in January 2026, two months ahead of schedule. Local forces retain flexibility to determine the workforce needed to meet their specific crime demands.

In addition, every neighbourhood, rural or urban, now gets named and contactable officers dedicated to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour locally. Every rural area will also be covered by a Local Policing Area under a commander responsible for emergency response, local crime investigation and neighbourhood policing. They will be set targets to ensure they answer 90% of 999 calls within 10 seconds and attend 90% of the most serious incidents within 20 minutes in rural areas.

Alongside this, we are strengthening specialist national capability. We are providing over £800,000 of funding to the National Rural Crime Unit and National Wildlife Crime Unit this financial year. These units provide specialist operational support to police forces, improve coordination and partnership working, and share best practice across the country.

The National Rural Crime Unit plays an important role in supporting forces to tackle organised criminality affecting rural communities, including theft of machinery and livestock. By improving coordination across forces and partners and supporting targeted operations, the Unit is strengthening the collective response to serious and organised crime and helping to disrupt the criminal networks that operate across regional and national borders.

Together, these reforms and specialist capabilities ensure police forces are equipped to maintain and strengthen their response to rural crime, including tackling the organised criminal networks that drive it.