Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of requiring police forces to record thefts (a) from and (b) of light commercial vehicles as distinct crime categories to enable accurate national monitoring of van-related offending.

The Home Office has access to a monthly extract of data from the Police National Computer (PNC) which provides additional intelligence information on the type of vehicles stolen in England and Wales. Such data already enables the monitoring of offences involving the theft of light commercial vehicles and so no additional crime code is needed to identify such thefts.

When collecting data for national monitoring purposes there is always a tension between seeking to capture more detail to identify emerging threats, which are hidden within existing broad offence groupings, and adding to recording complexity and burden on the police.

The Theft Act covers a wide range of criminality, and the Home Office currently require the police to record such offences under some fairly broad groups such as Theft from a motor vehicle, aggravated vehicle taking, and Theft or unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle.