Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is making to encourage churches to install alarm equipment to deter lead theft; and if she will make a statement.

We recognise the cost and disruption that arises from these crimes and we would therefore support churches in taking all reasonable precautions to prevent them.

While data published by the Office for National Statistics on 6 December 2017 shows that police recorded metal theft has fallen from nearly 63,000 in 2012/13 to under 13,000 in 2016/17, we will continue to work with the police and others through the police-led National Metal Theft Working Group, which includes representatives from the heritage sector, to see what more can be done to prevent all types of metal theft.