Agricultural Machinery: Theft
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had on updating the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Rural Crime Strategy to better prevent farm machinery, plant and vehicle theft when the current strategy expires in 2025.
Answered by Dame Diana Johnson
Rural crime can have devastating consequences for countryside communities. That is why this Government is committed to reducing crime in rural areas.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council is expected to publish its next four-year Rural and Wildlife Crime Strategy in April. We fully support the aims of the Strategy and are working closely with the NPCC, including to ensure wider Government priorities are reflected.
We are committed to implementing the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 and support its intentions to tackle the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly for use in an agricultural setting.
The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of offences and their investigative outcomes recorded by the police in England and Wales on a quarterly basis. However, offences involving agricultural crime cannot be separately identified from the data held centrally.
NFU Mutual estimated that the total cost of agricultural vehicle theft claims in 2023 was £10.7 million. This estimate only includes costs of agricultural vehicle thefts where a subsequent claim was made through NFU Mutual.
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