Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help stop organised crime involving vehicle theft.

The Government recognises the severe impacts that vehicle theft has on individuals, businesses and industry.

The Government is determined to ensure that crimes such as these receive the response they deserve. A central aim of the Government’s police reforms is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing: by lifting national responsibilities from local forces, we will allow the police to focus on tackling local issues, such as vehicle crime. We have also strengthened neighbourhood policing capacity, with a further 3,000 police officers and police community support officers placed into neighbourhood roles in less than a year.

The Government is also ensuring that the police have the powers necessary to tackle vehicle crime. The Crime and Policing Act 2026 introduces two new offences criminalising the possession, importation, making, adapting and supply of electronic devices used in vehicle theft.

Since 2024, the Home Office has provided almost £1 million For the National Vehicle Crime Reduction Partnership, to strengthen the enforcement response to organised vehicle theft and export. This funding has supported enforcement activity inland and at ports, including funding additional staff, police training and specialist equipment. A further £300,000 has been committed this year.

Information on stolen vehicles is already shared across law enforcement and with relevant partners to support the prevention, detection and investigation of vehicle crime. Current arrangements also support the circulation of stolen vehicle information through national and international policing channels, including INTERPOL databases. Decisions on the wider public release of stolen vehicle data would need careful consideration of operational impacts, including whether publication could inadvertently assist criminal activity.