Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to improve cooperation between police forces in tackling offences in rural areas affecting farms and agricultural businesses.

The Government is committed to reducing crime in rural areas and improving the safety of rural communities, including farms and agricultural businesses.

The Home Office has worked with Defra to support the National Police Chiefs’ Council Rural and Wildlife Crime Strategy 2025-28, which provides a framework through which policing and its partners can work together to tackle the crimes that predominantly affect rural communities, including organised criminality affecting farms and agricultural businesses.

To support the policing response, the Home Office is providing over £800,000 in 2026/27 to the National Rural Crime Unit and National Wildlife Crime Unit. These specialist units provide intelligence, analysis, coordination and operational support to police forces across the UK, helping forces share information, coordinate activity and tackle offenders operating across force boundaries. They also support the identification and disruption of organised criminal groups involved in rural crime and help share best practice across policing.