Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to issue guidance to police forces on responding to (a) thefts from vans and (b) tool theft, in the context of the implementation of the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023.

The Government is currently bringing forward legislative proposals to extend the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 to include tradespeople’s power tools. As set out in the recently published Government Response to the Call for Evidence on the scope of the legislation, concerns were raised by stakeholders that property marking tools would be impractical and costly. The economic impact assessment findings indicate that the total cost to business would be disproportionate to the benefits of implementing this proposal.

We recognise the devastating impact theft of tools can have for tradespeople. We are working with the police-led National Business Crime Centre and industry via the Combined Industries Theft Solutions forum to explore ways to tackle and prevent the theft of tools.

We encourage tradespeople to use existing guidance such as the NBCC and Police Crime Prevention Initiatives (Secured By Design) crime prevention guidance to help prevent theft.