Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance is provided to police forces on response times and follow-up for non-residential burglaries.

The Government recognises the wide-reaching impact of commercial burglary, including the profound impact these crimes can have on business owners, retail workers and the wider community.

The offences for non-residential burglaries such as business and commercial burglary across England and Wales decreased by 13% in the year to September 2025 compared with the previous year.

The table below shows the proportion of non-residential (commercial) burglaries reported to police in England resulted in a charge or summons in the last three years:

Police recorded offences, burglary - business and community, England

Note 1: Figures for year ending Sep 2023 exclude Devon and Cornwall

The Government is determined that robust action should be taken to prevent commercial burglaries from happening and ensure swift justice for perpetrators.

We are doing this by focusing our efforts on delivering our ambitious police reform agenda, the central aim of which is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities off local forces, so they focus on tackling local issues, like tackling commercial burglary. In addition, the Government has already taken steps to boost the neighbourhood policing response, ensuring that every neighbourhood has named, contactable officers and more visible patrols, with over 3,000 additional police officers and police community support officers put into neighbourhood roles in less than a year.

Through the Crime and Policing Bill we are giving police the powers they need, including to enter and search premises where stolen items are reasonably believed to have been stolen and located, and where it is not reasonably practicable to obtain a court warrant. This will significantly enhance the ability of the police to act swiftly and effectively in recovering stolen property.

Guidance for the police, including authorised professional practice guidance, is a matter for the College of Policing. The National Business Crime Centre (NBCC) works closely with businesses, law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders to prevent and reduce the impact of business crime in the UK. National Police Chief Council leads for business crime work closely with the NBCC to support the policing response to business crime, including on improved outcomes.