Metals: Theft

(asked on 20th June 2019) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of police action in preventing the theft of lead and other metals from churches.


Answered by
Nick Hurd Portrait
Nick Hurd
This question was answered on 26th June 2019

We supported the introduction of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 (‘the 2013 Act’) to help prevent and tackle metal theft. To support local agencies and others in implementing the measures it introduced we have published guidance on the 2013 Act which is available on GOV.uk.


The Home Office collects information from police forces on the number of offences that involved the theft of metal for its scrap metal value. These data are published annually by the Office for National Statistics and can be found in the ‘Property Crime tables’ here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/focusonpropertycrimeappendixtables. Data are available for the year ending March 2013 to March 2018 and are only available at police force area level.


We recognise the challenges in tackling crimes carried out online, including in relation to metal theft. In April, we published our Online Harms White Paper which proposes a new regulatory framework, with a new statutory duty of care to ensure companies take responsibility for harmful and illegal content and activity on their services.

A 2015 Home Office evaluation of Government and police interventions aimed at reducing metal theft found good evidence that they drove a reduction in offences. In addition, a 2017 review of the 2013 Act found that it continues to provide a strong legislative foundation for addressing metal theft. The evaluation and review are available on GOV.uk. We continue to work closely with the police and others to keep this area under review.

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