Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will bring forward proposals for the introduction of a legal requirement for verification of suppliers' identity, similar to that included in the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, for gold and jewellery.

We have no plans to introduce new regulations at this stage. Gold, unlike scrap metal such as lead, is sold through many different outlets including antique shops, jewellers, pawnbrokers and shops offering cash for goods. Any new regulation would potentially be both complex and expensive to implement and enforce.

The crime prevention panel that we have set up in the Home Office is looking at new ways to prevent the theft of gold. This includes a review of an existing voluntary code of practice on the sale of gold that has been developed by police in collaboration with the National Pawnbrokers Association, the British Jewellers’ Association, the National Association of Goldsmiths and others.
Shops signing up to this code of practice agree to follow a number of guidelines, including asking for proof of identity when gold is offered for sale and maintaining detailed records of goods purchased. We expect this work to be completed in early 2015.