Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many instances of metal theft from public property occurred in (a) Surrey, (b) the South East and (c) England in each of the last seven years.

The Home Office does not hold the requested information centrally.

The Home Office collects data on police recorded metal thefts, but it is not possible from these data to identify whether the crime was against public property or not.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published police recorded crime data on metal theft in Focus on Property Crime: year ending March 2016. This publication gives details of the number of metal theft offences in England and Wales in the year to March 2016 and compares this with the previous year.

The publication can be accessed here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/focusonpropertycrime/yearendingmarch2016