Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of providing funding to the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service to support the expansion of its operations in areas with high levels of vehicle crime.

The National Vehicle Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) is a national policing unit funded by industry, including finance and leasing companies, insurers and hauliers, to provide dedicated specialist intelligence and enforcement. NAVICS undertakes enforcement action at ports which are intelligence-led operations to tackle vehicle crime.

Whilst the Government does not fund NaVCIS, we provided £250,000 last year to other law enforcement partners to help support enforcement at the ports to prevent stolen vehicles and vehicle parts being shipped abroad, including additional staff and specialist equipment.

This Government is determined to drive down vehicle crime. We are working with the automotive industry and police, including the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on the issue, to ensure the strongest response possible. The former Policing Minister recently met the previous NPCC vehicle crime lead, ACC Jenny Sims, as well as other law enforcement representatives and representatives from industry, to discuss how we work together to tackle these damaging crimes.

Via the recently established National Vehicle Crime Reduction Partnership and the police-led National Vehicle Crime Working Group, we are focusing on prevention and deterrence of theft of and from vehicles. This includes training police officers on the methods used to steal vehicles, encouraging vehicle owners to secure their vehicles, and working with industry to address vulnerabilities in vehicles.

In the Crime and Policing Bill we have banned electronic devices used to steal vehicles, empowering the police and courts to target the criminals using, manufacturing, importing and supplying them.