Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the National Rural Crime Network's report Rural Crime: Serious, Organised and International, published on 10 March.

We welcome the National Rural Crime Network’s report and will consider its recommendations.

This Government is committed to tackling the threat from Serious and Organised Crime (SOC). In December 2023, we published the 2023 Serious and Organised Crime Strategy that commits to reducing SOC in the UK by disrupting and dismantling organised crime groups and networks operating in and against the UK.

Serious and organised crime is a major threat to the national security and prosperity of the UK. It costs lives, blights communities, hampers economic growth, and corrodes the global reputation of the UK and its institutions.

Additionally, the Government recognises that there can be particular challenges in responding to rural crime and welcomed the rural and wildlife crime strategy published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council in September 2022.

The Home Office provided £200,000 for the National Rural Crime Unit to tackle rural crime including the theft of farming or construction machinery, livestock theft, rural fly tipping, rural fuel theft and equine crime. We will continue to work closely with the NRCU to help ensure an effective police response to rural crime.