Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with officials at the National Crime Agency on the theft of cars by criminal gangs.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to tackling vehicle crime and catalytic converter theft.
We are working closely with police and motor manufacturers through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group (NVCWG), chaired by ACC Jennifer Sims, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for vehicle crime, to take forward a programme of work to prevent and reduce theft of and from vehicles. This includes training police officers on methods used to steal vehicles, encouraging vehicle owners to secure their vehicles and working with industry to prevent theft. Through the NVWG a network of vehicle crime specialists has been established, involving every police force in England and Wales, to ensure better sharing of information and intelligence.
The Metropolitan Police Service is represented on the Working Group and the Home Office regularly engages with the NCA on crime related to criminal gangs.
The most recent meeting of the NVCWG took place on 4th May 2023.
The Government is also working closely with the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership (NICRP) to tackle theft of catalytic converters. The Home Office provided funding in 2021 to set-up the NICRP, the work of which ensures national co-ordination of policing and law enforcement partners to tackle metal theft, providing training, sharing intelligence to target offenders, and implementing crime prevention measures.
Crime Survey data on vehicle theft since 2010 being down 42%. The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of car thefts recorded by the police in England and Wales, including data by London Boroughs.
Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Table 1 Volume of Police recorded offences for ‘Theft of a motor vehicle’, Outer London Boroughs
Area | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | Apr to Dec 22 |
Hounslow | 876 | 792 | 744 | 562 |
Outer London Boroughs | 19,305 | 16,154 | 17,978 | 15,472 |
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with police forces to reduce thefts of (a) cars and (b) catalytic converters.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to tackling vehicle crime and catalytic converter theft.
We are working closely with police and motor manufacturers through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group (NVCWG), chaired by ACC Jennifer Sims, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for vehicle crime, to take forward a programme of work to prevent and reduce theft of and from vehicles. This includes training police officers on methods used to steal vehicles, encouraging vehicle owners to secure their vehicles and working with industry to prevent theft. Through the NVWG a network of vehicle crime specialists has been established, involving every police force in England and Wales, to ensure better sharing of information and intelligence.
The Metropolitan Police Service is represented on the Working Group and the Home Office regularly engages with the NCA on crime related to criminal gangs.
The most recent meeting of the NVCWG took place on 4th May 2023.
The Government is also working closely with the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership (NICRP) to tackle theft of catalytic converters. The Home Office provided funding in 2021 to set-up the NICRP, the work of which ensures national co-ordination of policing and law enforcement partners to tackle metal theft, providing training, sharing intelligence to target offenders, and implementing crime prevention measures.
Crime Survey data on vehicle theft since 2010 being down 42%. The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of car thefts recorded by the police in England and Wales, including data by London Boroughs.
Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Table 1 Volume of Police recorded offences for ‘Theft of a motor vehicle’, Outer London Boroughs
Area | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | Apr to Dec 22 |
Hounslow | 876 | 792 | 744 | 562 |
Outer London Boroughs | 19,305 | 16,154 | 17,978 | 15,472 |
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the National Vehicle Crime Working Group last met.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to tackling vehicle crime and catalytic converter theft.
We are working closely with police and motor manufacturers through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group (NVCWG), chaired by ACC Jennifer Sims, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for vehicle crime, to take forward a programme of work to prevent and reduce theft of and from vehicles. This includes training police officers on methods used to steal vehicles, encouraging vehicle owners to secure their vehicles and working with industry to prevent theft. Through the NVWG a network of vehicle crime specialists has been established, involving every police force in England and Wales, to ensure better sharing of information and intelligence.
The Metropolitan Police Service is represented on the Working Group and the Home Office regularly engages with the NCA on crime related to criminal gangs.
The most recent meeting of the NVCWG took place on 4th April 2023.
The Government is also working closely with the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership (NICRP) to tackle theft of catalytic converters. The Home Office provided funding in 2021 to set-up the NICRP, the work of which ensures national co-ordination of policing and law enforcement partners to tackle metal theft, providing training, sharing intelligence to target offenders, and implementing crime prevention measures.
Crime Survey data on vehicle theft since 2010 being down 42%. The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of car thefts recorded by the police in England and Wales, including data by London Boroughs.
Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Table 1 Volume of Police recorded offences for ‘Theft of a motor vehicle’, Outer London Boroughs
Area | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | Apr to Dec 22 |
Hounslow | 876 | 792 | 744 | 562 |
Outer London Boroughs | 19,305 | 16,154 | 17,978 | 15,472 |
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many scrap metal operators were prosecuted for (a) not holding a licence and (b) paying cash for scrap metal in the last three years; and how many and what proportion of those prosecutions resulted in a conviction.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants prosecuted and convicted for offences under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 (offence code 19534) within the last three years, in the following tool:
A breakdown of the prosecutions and convictions for (a) not holding a licence and (b) paying cash for scrap metal for year ending June 2020 to year ending June 2022, issued at all courts in England and Wales, has been provided in Table 1 on a principal offence basis.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an estimate of the economic cost of metal theft to the UK economy.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Scrap Metal Dealers Act (2013) was introduced to reduce metal theft by strengthening regulation of the scrap metal industry.
The most recent assessment of the cost of metal theft was at the time of the 2013 Act’s enactment with an estimated cost of £228 million in England and Wales.
Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the number of visits that were carried out by local authority licensing officers to licensed scrap metal dealers in the last 12 months.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not compile data on the number of visits carried out by local authority licensing officers to licensed scrap metal dealers.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much and what proportion of Environment Agency’s time is dedicated to (a) tackling permitted scrap metal operators acting illegally and (b) tackling unpermitted operators in the scrap metal sector accessing Grant-in-Aid funding.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency spent a total of 32,446 hours on compliance activities at 7,070 permitted sites across all waste treatment sectors (Hazardous Waste Treatment, Non-Hazardous & Inert Waste Treatment and Metal Recycling) in 2022.
For the metal recycling sector specifically, the Environment Agency undertook 1,762 compliance related activities across 2,152 permitted sites. These compliance activities include site inspections, site audits, check monitoring, procedure reviews and report/data reviews. As part of these compliance checks we recorded 1,396 separate permit breaches. The Environment Agency spent a total 8,811 hours on compliance work in the Metal Recycling Sector. 7,878 of those hours were spent undertaking site inspections.
The Environment Agency does not have data available on the proportion of time spent tackling unpermitted operators in a specific sector. However, we can state that in the financial year 2021/2022 the Environment Agency spent approximately 130,000 hours or 108 FTE tackling illegal waste sites, including illegal scrap metal sites. During that same financial year, a total of 561 illegal waste sites were stopped by the Environment Agency. As an indicator, 94 of these sites were in the scrap metal sector, which represents 17% of all sites stopped. Activities to tackle illegal waste sites are currently funded through government grant-in-aid.
Asked by: Jonathan Edwards (Independent - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of deploying depleted uranium shells to Ukraine on (a) the environment and (b) civilian health.
Answered by James Heappey
Depleted uranium rounds obviously have a high impact upon those in the target armoured vehicle. Beyond that the effects are limited, primarily to the remains of the targeted vehicle and some potential heavy metal contamination localised around the impact zone. Radiation from depleted uranium is not discernible from natural background radiation at impact sites.
The use of depleted uranium munitions have been investigated by the Royal Society, World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Environmental Program, the International Atomic Energy Agency, NATO, the Centres for Disease Control, the European Commission, and others. None of these inquiries has documented long-term environmental or health effects attributable to use of these munitions. The WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) places depleted uranium in 'group 3' - not carcinogenic to humans.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an estimate of the number of (a) occasions that schools in Birmingham, Erdington constituency have screened pupils using metal detectors and (b) weapons that have been recovered as a result of screening pupils in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not collect data on how many schools use screening or how many weapons are collected as a result of screening.
The Department updated its guidance, ‘Searching, screening and confiscation’, in July 2022.
Headteachers are encouraged to consult with local police who may be able to advise on whether installation of screening devices is appropriate. Any weapons that are found as a result of screening or a search must be passed to the police.
Schools are advised that any search for a prohibited item by a member of staff or police officers should be recorded in the school’s safeguarding reporting system. This allows the designated safeguarding lead to identify possible risks and initiate a safeguarding response if required.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of (a) illegal scrap metal operators on the metals recycling sector and (b) waste crime on (i) the waste and recycling sector and (ii) UK economy.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Waste regulation is a devolved matter. Following our consultation on reform of the waste exemptions regime in England and Wales we plan to remove the T9 exemption for the recovery of scrap metal and the U16 exemption for using vehicle parts dismantled from end-of life vehicles. These operations will now require an environmental permit.
My Department has made no assessment of the potential impact of waste crime on the waste and recycling sector or the UK economy. Research for the Environmental Services Association (Counting the Cost of UK Waste Crime, 2021) estimated that waste crime costs the economy in England £924 million in 2018/19.
The Government has provided an additional £10 million per year for the Environment Agency to tackle waste crime. This additional funding has been invested into three key areas of waste crime – tackling illegal waste sites, illegal dumping and illegal exports.