Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with telecommunications providers on improving the resilience and security of newly installed infrastructure; and whether she plans to introduce updated (a) regulation and (b) penalties relating to the theft and resale of telecommunications cable.

This Government recognises the significant distress and disruption that cable theft and vandalism cause for individuals, businesses and critical national infrastructure.

That is why we work closely with the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership (NICRP), which brings together policing, law enforcement and industry partners, including from the telecommunications sector, to tackle metal and cable theft through intelligence sharing and crime prevention activity. In March 2026, the policing minister met NICRP representatives to understand the scale of infrastructure crime and explore how Government can support the partnership’s work.

The central aim of our police reforms is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities off local forces, so they focus on tackling local issues, like tackling the theft and resale of telecommunications cables.

We have hit our target of 3,000 more neighbourhood officers in March and our target remains 13,000 by the end of this Parliament. Police reforms and wider crime prevention measures are intended to ensure that forces have the capability and flexibility to work with communities and business to deploy specific security technologies as required.