Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many reported vehicle thefts there were in (a) the London Borough of Hounslow and (b) London in the last four years.

The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of vehicle theft offences reported to and recorded by the police in England and Wales, on a quarterly basis. These are available at the Police Force Area and the Community Safety Partnership Area levels, and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables

The Office for National Statistics’ Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and its latest estimates shows that the number of incidences of theft of vehicles has fallen by 23% since the year ending March 2010, to 86,000 incidences. The sample size of the CSEW is not large enough to yield estimates at borough or local authority level.

The Government is committed to tackling vehicle crime. We are working closely with police and motor manufacturers through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group (NVCWG), chaired by ACC Jennifer Sims, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for vehicle crime, to take forward a programme of work to prevent and reduce theft of and from vehicles. This includes training police officers on methods used to steal vehicles, encouraging vehicle owners to secure their vehicles and working with industry to prevent theft. Through the NVCWG a network of vehicle crime specialists has been established, involving every police force in England and Wales, to ensure better sharing of information and intelligence.