Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with police forces on the effects on burglary rates of the number of safety deposit boxes available to the public.

The Home Office has not held discussions with police forces on the possible effect on burglary rates arising from the availability of safety deposit boxes.

However, the Crime Prevention Panel that we established in March this year, which brings together a range of experts to identify new ideas for preventing crime, is looking at issues around the safe storage of gold jewellery and other valuable items, both in people’s homes and in external storage facilities. We expect the findings from this work to be available in early 2015.