Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the scale of keyless car theft enabled by signal-amplifying technology in Surrey Heath constituency.

Estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales for the year ending March 2024 show that 58% of vehicle theft offences involved the offender manipulating the signal from remote locking device.

In the Crime and Policing Bill we are banning the electronic devices used to steal vehicles, empowering the police and courts to target the criminals using, manufacturing, importing and supplying them.

We are also working with the police and industry, to ensure a strong response to vehicle crime, including keyless car theft.

The National Vehicle Crime Reduction Partnership and the police-led National Vehicle Crime Working Group are focusing on prevention and deterrence of theft of, and from, vehicles. This includes training police officers on the methods used to steal vehicles, encouraging vehicle owners to secure their vehicles, and working with industry to address vulnerabilities in vehicles.