Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of the use of off-road bikes in criminal activity in rural areas; and what steps she is taking to support police forces in tackling unlawful use where it results in damage to agricultural land and crops.

The Home Office does not hold data on the level of use of off-road bikes used in criminal activity in rural areas. However, we recognise the impact that unlawful and anti-social use of off-road bikes can have on communities.

The police have a range of powers to tackle the unlawful use of off-road bikes, including powers to seize vehicles being used illegally or anti-socially. The Crime and Policing Act 2026 has strengthened these powers by removing the requirement to issue a warning before a vehicle can be seized for anti-social use, enabling officers to act swiftly. We have also brought forward legislation to reduce the timeframe before a seized vehicle can be disposed of to seven days, preventing opportunities for offenders to re-offend.

Decisions on the deployment of these powers and their use in tackling damage to agricultural land in rural areas are operational matters for individual police forces. They are best placed to respond to the particular challenges in their force areas.