Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to encourage greater cross-border co-operation between different constabularies for the purposes of tackling travelling criminals in (a) rural and (b) urban areas; and if she will make a statement.

The police operational response to crime is an operational matter for chief officers. The police do have networks and tools which assist them in collaborating across police force boundaries where appropriate, which include specialist units owned jointly by a number of forces and the Regional Organised Crime Unit structure.