Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to ensure that mobile phones can be blocked or made unsaleable after being stolen.

Mobile phone theft blights communities, and we are determined to do more to tackle it.

Law enforcement partners are delivering robust action to drive down the numbers of these thefts. In London, mobile phone theft has fallen by 10,000 offences in the past year – a reduction of 12.3%.

We also want to see further action aimed at breaking the business model that drives phone theft, by reducing the value of a stolen device. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is continuing to work closely with these partners on technical solutions aimed at achieving this. The Home Office is supporting these efforts. At present, our preferred approach remains allowing time for this collaborative work to continue, so that potential solutions to be developed and tested appropriately.

At the recent International Mobile Phone Crime Conference, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan police set a deadline of 1 June for industry to bring forward further concrete commitments. If meaningful progress cannot be made, the Home Office will look to consider any necessary action.