Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the resale of stolen mobile phones.

On 6 February the Home Secretary brought together police, the National Crime Agency, the Mayor of London, local government representatives, leading technology companies and others to drive greater collaboration in breaking the business model of mobile phone thieves. The Summit resulted in clear commitments from attendees to work in partnership, including to significantly boost the sharing of data and intelligence on mobile phone theft to build a comprehensive picture of the problem, better understand the role of organised crime networks and identify the most effective means of tackling these crimes. This includes work to disrupt the resale of stolen phones, including exploring technological solutions to make devices harder to re-register or resell, and working with the police to better understand the routes used to sell stolen phones.

The Home Office continues to regularly engage with the police and other stakeholders to progress work to tackle this criminality and the Home Secretary will reconvene this group shortly to agree further actions.

In addition, the Crime and Policing Bill includes a measure to give police the power to enter and search premises for stolen property that has been electronically geo-location tracked to those premises, where it is not reasonably practicable to obtain a warrant without seriously prejudicing the entry and search purpose. This power will support efforts to recover stolen phones before they can be resold.