Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has considered the potential merits of legislating to ensure that the (a) historic and (b) cultural value of heritage metal is considered in prosecutions for metal theft.

This Government recognises the distress and disruption that heritage theft can cause to local communities.

That is why the sentencing guidelines on theft were amended in 2016 to highlight that where theft is of heritage assets or causes disruption to infrastructure, this should be taken into account when assessing the level of harm caused.