Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle car thefts in (a) Stoke-on-Trent South constituency and (b) other constituencies.

This Government is determined to drive down vehicle crime and we are closely working with the automotive industry and police to ensure our response to vehicle crime is as strong as it can be.

We continue to work with the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for vehicle crime, through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group, to take forward a programme of work to drive down vehicle crime. We are focusing on prevention and deterrence of theft of and from vehicles; this includes training police officers on the methods used to steal vehicles, encouraging vehicle owners to secure their vehicles, and working with industry to address vulnerabilities in vehicles.

The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of ‘Aggravated vehicle taking’ and ‘Theft or unauthorised taking of motor vehicle’ offences recorded by the police in England and Wales on a quarterly basis. This information is available at the Police Force Area and Community Safety Partnership area level including ‘Stoke-on-Trent Community Safety Partnership Area’. Information at the constituency level is not held centrally.

Data for year ending March 2024 shows there were 714 ‘Aggravated vehicle taking’ and ‘Theft or unauthorised taking of motor vehicle’ offences recorded by Stoke-on-Trent Community Partnership Area, a rise of 1% compared with the previous year. There was a small fall (1%) across England and Wales for the same period.