Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent the resale of stolen mobile phones in (a) Bedfordshire, (b) Cambridgeshire and (c) Suffolk.

The Home Secretary has been clear that tackling mobile phone theft and the resale of stolen devices is a priority.

Earlier this year the Home Secretary brought together police, the National Crime Agency, the Mayor of London, leading tech 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 work to disrupt the resale of stolen phones, 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 is driving this work with the police and other stakeholders to tackle this criminality.

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.