Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) increase prosecution rates for perpetrators of rural crime and (b) protect victims of those crimes.

The Government recognises the importance of tackling rural crime. We are committed to safeguarding rural communities, with tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing, and stronger laws to prevent farm theft and fly-tippers.

We are also committed to implementing the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023, which aims to prevent the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly for use in rural settings.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy 2022-2025 provides a framework through which policing, and its partners, can work together to tackle the most prevalent threats and emerging issues which predominantly affect rural communities.

The Home Office funded the establishment of the National Rural Crime Unit. The unit takes the lead on improving co-ordination and partnership working between police forces and rural communities. This provides police forces with specialist operational support in their responses to rural crime, such as the theft of farming or construction machinery, livestock theft, fly tipping, fuel theft and equine crime. The unit also helps in sharing best practice and encouraging regional and national approaches.

The Home Office also directly funds the National Wildlife Crime Unit to provide intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to forces and other law enforcement agencies across the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime, which can affect rural areas.