Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the UK’s decision to leave the EU on the UK’s ability to track down or trace stolen plant and agricultural machinery.

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.

The Government welcomed the rural and wildlife crime strategy published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council in September 2022, this provides a comprehensive framework through which policing, and partner agencies can work together to tackle rural and wildlife crime, including where it is linked to other forms of serious and organised crime such as the drugs trade.

The National Rural Crime Unit works closely with Interpol to share information about stolen agricultural and construction machinery. As a result of the partnership it has established with INTERPOL, equipment has been recovered from criminal gangs across Europe.