Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of tool thefts on lost working days to the economy.

This Government recognises that tradespeople are often targeted by criminals who seek to steal tools. We also recognise the deeply damaging impact on victims who rely on their tools to earn a living.

Whilst we do not have an official estimate of the costs of tool theft, recent research commissioned by industry indicated that 9% of victims in their cohort lost over three days of work as a result.

In the Government’s Small Business Plan, published on 31 July, we committed to working alongside industry and small business representatives to tackle the problem of tool theft. We are partnering with tradespeople’s representatives, policing and other partners, including retailers and manufacturers, to co-design actions Government and industry can take to encourage theft prevention.

A key part of making acquisitive crime less attractive to criminals is making stolen goods harder to sell on. That is why we work closely with policing and academic leads to examine what more can be done to tackle the disposal markets for stolen goods and reduce the profit from acquisitive crime.

We are providing £2m funding for the National Business Crime Centre over the next three financial years to help tackle the crimes most affecting businesses today, including tackling the sale of stolen goods.

The Chancellor has announced a real terms increase in police spending power over the next three years and more detail on force funding allocations for 2026-27 will be set out at the forthcoming police funding settlement.

The 2025-26 settlement represents a 6.4% cash increase and a 3.9% real terms increase in funding.

The Police Funding Settlement of £200 million will support the first steps of delivering 13,000 more neighbourhood personnel.