Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to tackle increasing levels of mobile phone theft.

On 6 February the Home Secretary brought together law enforcement and leading tech companies to drive greater collaboration in breaking the business model of mobile phone thieves.

The Summit resulted in clear commitments from attendees to work in partnership, including to significantly boost the sharing of data and intelligence on mobile phone theft to build a comprehensive picture of the problem and better understand the role of organised crime networks.

To aid police investigations and recovery of stolen goods, our Crime and Policing Bill also includes a measure to give police the power to enter and search premises for stolen property that has been electronically geolocation tracked to those premises, where it is not reasonably practicable to obtain a warrant.

Through our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee we will place thousands of additional police officers and police community support officers in neighbourhood policing roles to provide a more visible and effective response, including in response to the activities of mobile phone thieves operating in our communities.