Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they are considering to support the prevention of criminal damage to agricultural equipment, such as introducing requirements for immobilisers or forensic marking.

The Government is committed to safeguarding rural communities, with tougher measures to clamp down on equipment theft, anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing, and stronger laws to prevent farm theft and fly-tippers.

Our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will deliver 13,000 more neighbourhood police by the end of the Parliament, whilst also ensuring each community, including rural communities, has a named, contactable officer to turn to. We recognise the impact stolen farm machinery can have on businesses. We will implement the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023, which aims to prevent the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly for use in an agricultural setting.

The Act enables the Home Secretary to make secondary legislation requiring immobilisers and forensic marking to be fitted to new All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) and quad bikes to act as a deterrent to theft. The Act does not specifically aim to prevent criminal damage to agricultural equipment.

We intend to publish the Government response to a Call for Evidence on the detail of the secondary legislation shortly. This will set out what equipment the Government proposes to include in the legislation, which we hope to introduce later this year.