Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce bicycle theft; and what estimate her Department has made of the number of such thefts in each of the last five years.

The number of bicycle thefts recorded by the independent Crime Survey for England and Wales for each of the last 5 years are set out in the table below. According to the most recent Crime Survey statistics published by the Office for National Statistics on 19 January, there was a statistically significant fall of 23 per cent in bicycle thefts in the year to September 2016 compared to the previous year

We encourage victims of bicycle theft to report these crimes to the police. A number of police forces provide advice to the public on measures they can take to make their bicycles more secure, including encouraging people to keep a record of their property, together with taking serial numbers and photographs. In addition, there are a number of industry initiatives that can help tackle bicycle theft, including property marking schemes.