Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the number of metal thefts in England and Wales since 2013; and what steps they are taking to address this issue.

Data published by the Office for National Statistics on 6 December 2017 shows that there were 12,970 metal theft offences recorded by police forces in England and Wales in the year ending March 2017. This was a reduction of 22 per cent compared with the previous year and a fall of 79 per cent from the year ending March 2013. These statistics are set out in the report of the Government’s review of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 which was published on 11 December 2017.

The Government will continue to work with the police and others through the police-led National Metal Theft Working Group to see what more can be done to prevent metal theft