Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to improve police forces’ ability to tackle organised rural crime.

Rural crime can have devastating consequences for countryside communities and the agricultural sector. That is why this Government is committed to reducing crime in rural areas. We are improving the safety of rural communities with tougher measures to clamp down on organised rural crime, equipment theft, strengthened neighbourhood policing and stronger measures to prevent farm theft and fly-tipping.

This Government recognises that there can be challenges in responding to organised rural crime and is taking a coordinated, cross-system approach to tackling this issue. 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 capabilities provide intelligence, analysis, coordination and operational support to forces across the UK, helping to identify, disrupt and pursue offenders operating across force boundaries.

The Home Office has worked closely with Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to support the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) in delivering their Rural and Wildlife Crime Strategy for 2025–28. This strategy 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.

People in rural communities often feel that they don’t receive the same timeliness and quality of response from their local force as those living in urban areas. Our police reforms will end that postcode lottery by setting central targets, increasing transparency so people can see how their force is performing, and taking robust action where forces are not performing. With our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, every neighbourhood, rural or urban, now has a named contactable officer, dedicated to addressing the issues facing their communities.