Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce thefts of (a) mobile phones, (b) handbags and (c) other personal items.

Through our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee we will place thousands of additional police officers and police community support officers in neighbourhood policing roles to provide a more visible and effective service to the public, with each neighbourhood having a named, contactable officer dealing with local issues, including the theft of mobile phones, handbags and other personal items.

To tackle mobile phone theft specifically, on 6 February the Home Secretary brought together police, the National Crime Agency, the Mayor of London, leading tech companies and others to drive greater collaboration in breaking the business model of mobile phone thieves. The Summit resulted in clear commitments from attendees to work in partnership, including to significantly boost the sharing of data and intelligence on mobile phone theft to build a comprehensive picture of the problem, better understand the role of organised crime networks and identify the most effective means of tackling these crimes. As part of ongoing work on this, the Policing Minister recently met with the National Crime Agency and Border Force to consider how best they may be able to contribute to efforts to tackle this criminality.

In addition, the Crime and Policing Bill includes a measure to give police the power to enter and search premises for stolen property that has been electronically geo-location tracked to those premises, where it is not reasonably practicable to obtain a warrant without seriously prejudicing the entry and search purpose.