Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions her Department has had with the National Vehicle Crime Working Group on catalytic converter thefts.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Opal, the police intelligence unit on serious organised acquisitive crime, monitors the numbers of catalytic converter thefts and shares data with the Home Office and National Vehicle Crime Working Group. In addition, the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership (NICRP) is collating intelligence to track these thefts, alert members to trends, and implement crime prevention measures.
The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the number of theft offences, and arrests and charges for theft. However, this data is collected at offence group level only and cannot be broken down further to identify thefts of catalytic converters.
We are continuing to work closely with police and motor manufacturers through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group to tackle vehicle-related thefts. The British Transport Police and the NICRP have co-ordinated a number of multi-agency national weeks of action to tackle theft of scrap metal and catalytic converters. Three weeks of action resulted in 92 arrests, over 2,000 site visits, over 1,000 stolen catalytic converters recovered, and the catalytic converters of over 3,000 vehicles were forensically marked. This has helped to promote awareness, with over 1,000 officers trained in enforcement powers to deal with scrap metal dealers.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of gathering data centrally on the (a) annual number of catalytic converter thefts and (b) number of arrests and charges for theft of catalytic converters.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Opal, the police intelligence unit on serious organised acquisitive crime, monitors the numbers of catalytic converter thefts and shares data with the Home Office and National Vehicle Crime Working Group. In addition, the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership (NICRP) is collating intelligence to track these thefts, alert members to trends, and implement crime prevention measures.
The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the number of theft offences, and arrests and charges for theft. However, this data is collected at offence group level only and cannot be broken down further to identify thefts of catalytic converters.
We are continuing to work closely with police and motor manufacturers through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group to tackle vehicle-related thefts. The British Transport Police and the NICRP have co-ordinated a number of multi-agency national weeks of action to tackle theft of scrap metal and catalytic converters. Three weeks of action resulted in 92 arrests, over 2,000 site visits, over 1,000 stolen catalytic converters recovered, and the catalytic converters of over 3,000 vehicles were forensically marked. This has helped to promote awareness, with over 1,000 officers trained in enforcement powers to deal with scrap metal dealers.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help tackle the theft of keyless vehicles.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We are continuing to work closely with police and motor manufacturers through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group to tackle vehicle-related thefts. This includes taking forward discussions with manufacturers about how to further build intelligence to prevent thefts of vehicles using electronic compromise.
The National Vehicle Crime Working Group has established a horizon-scanning group to identify potential future trends, threats and vulnerability in vehicle security and vehicle-related crime. Through this group we engage closely with academics, vehicle manufacturers and policing leads to undertake research and implement actions to mitigate future opportunities to criminally exploit technological and design changes in the automotive industry.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of catalytic converter thefts reported in the last 12 months.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not hold data on the number of catalytic converter thefts reported in the last 12 months, or information on the number of arrests and charges for theft of catalytic converters from motor vehicles centrally.
We are continuing to work closely with police and motor manufacturers through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group to tackle vehicle-related thefts. Actions include working with manufacturers of vehicles most susceptible to catalytic converter thefts, and increasing awareness and intelligence-sharing amongst police.
We also provided seed corn funding to the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership, which is ensuring national co-ordination of policing and law enforcement partners to tackle metal theft, including the theft of catalytic converters. Through this Partnership, national enforcement activity has been carried out to disrupt organised crime, train hundreds of law enforcement officers, investigate and shut down illegal scrap metal and waste sites, recover stolen and forensically mark catalytic converters to deter thefts.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the proportion of catalytic converter thefts reported where individuals are later arrested and charged, in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not hold data on the number of catalytic converter thefts reported in the last 12 months, or information on the number of arrests and charges for theft of catalytic converters from motor vehicles centrally.
We are continuing to work closely with police and motor manufacturers through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group to tackle vehicle-related thefts. Actions include working with manufacturers of vehicles most susceptible to catalytic converter thefts, and increasing awareness and intelligence-sharing amongst police.
We also provided seed corn funding to the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership, which is ensuring national co-ordination of policing and law enforcement partners to tackle metal theft, including the theft of catalytic converters. Through this Partnership, national enforcement activity has been carried out to disrupt organised crime, train hundreds of law enforcement officers, investigate and shut down illegal scrap metal and waste sites, recover stolen and forensically mark catalytic converters to deter thefts.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to help prevent catalytic converter theft.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not hold data on the number of catalytic converter thefts reported in the last 12 months, or information on the number of arrests and charges for theft of catalytic converters from motor vehicles centrally.
We are continuing to work closely with police and motor manufacturers through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group to tackle vehicle-related thefts. Actions include working with manufacturers of vehicles most susceptible to catalytic converter thefts, and increasing awareness and intelligence-sharing amongst police.
We also provided seed corn funding to the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership, which is ensuring national co-ordination of policing and law enforcement partners to tackle metal theft, including the theft of catalytic converters. Through this Partnership, national enforcement activity has been carried out to disrupt organised crime, train hundreds of law enforcement officers, investigate and shut down illegal scrap metal and waste sites, recover stolen and forensically mark catalytic converters to deter thefts.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle theft of tradespeoples' tools from vehicles.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government is tackling acquisitive crime as a priority and is committed to reducing the ability for criminals to profit. We understand the negative impact theft has on victims who rely on the tools of their trade to earn a living. We have established an expert Stolen Goods Working Group with the police and academia to tackle the markets for stolen goods. The group is examining ways to make property more identifiable and traceable, and are working with partners to increase enforcement.
We also continue to work closely with the police and motor manufacturers through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group, established by the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for vehicle crime. This includes consideration of how we can reduce thefts of items from vehicles. Through this Working Group, a network of vehicle crime specialists has been established across all police forces in England and Wales to share expertise.
To ensure the police have the resources they need to tackle crime, the Government is recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers by March 2023. The police have now recruited an additional 11,053 officers towards the target.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of arrests on suspicion of theft of catalytic converters from motor vehicles in each of the last three years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office does not hold information on the number of arrests for theft of catalytic converters from motor vehicles centrally.
The Home Office collect and publish data annually on the number of arrests, including reason for arrest, in the Police Powers and Procedures publication which can be found here: Police powers and procedures England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). However, data for reason for arrest are collected at offence group level only (e.g. theft offences) and cannot be broken down to identify if it was a theft of a catalytic converter.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) provides estimates of the number of incidents of theft from vehicles, including details of the items stolen, such as car parts. The latest available data is published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the ‘Nature of Crime: vehicle related theft’ tables, available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/natureofcrimevehiclerelatedtheft.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the number of convictions for theft of catalytic converters from motor vehicles.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Acquisitive crime is when the offender derives material gain from the crime, such as theft, burglary, fraud and robbery. Acquisitive crime, which includes catalytic converter theft, is a Home Office responsibility. Nonetheless the Government is committed to tackling the theft of catalytic converters, working closely with police and motor manufacturers through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group, established by the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for vehicle crime and overseen by the Government’s Crime and Justice Taskforce, to determine what more can be done.
The Government enacted the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 which has been instrumental in tackling this crime. The Government also funded the set-up of the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership (NICRP), which ensures national co-ordination of policing and law enforcement partners to tackle metal theft, including the theft of catalytic converters. It provides training to law enforcement and other partner agencies, shares intelligence to target offenders, and implements crime prevention measures. The British Transport Police, through the NICRP, has conducted two national weeks of actions, which resulted in 64 arrests, over 1,400 stopped vehicles and over 1,000 catalytic converters and other items of stolen property were recovered.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many convictions have been recorded for motor vehicle theft in each year since 2015.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Justice has published information on convictions for motor vehicle theft offences in England and Wales for the last 10 calendar years, available in the ‘Outcomes by Offence’ data tool, which can be found here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/987715/outcomes-by-offence-2020.xlsx
Select the following in the ‘offence’ filter:
The number of convictions will be found on row 24.