Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of recent trends in levels of rural crime rates in Buckinghamshire in the last five years.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes estimates, from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), on the proportion of adults who had been a victim of crime. This is broken down by whether the household was located in a rural or urban location. The latest data can be found here:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesannualtrendanddemographictables/current

Data is not available for county areas such as Buckinghamshire.

This Government is determined to tackle rural crime and is 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.

We are taking a new approach by working closely with the National Police Chief’s Council to develop the next iteration of the Rural and Wildlife Crime Strategy, to ensure the government’s Safer Streets Mission benefits every community no matter where they live, including rural communities.

This new financial year the Home Office will be providing the first funding since 2023 for the National Rural Crime Unit (£365,000) as well as continuing funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit (£450,000). This will allow these specialist units to continue their work in tackling rural and wildlife crime which can pose unique challenges for policing given the scale and isolation of rural areas.