Freight: Crime
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of levels of freight crime; and what steps she is taking to improve prevention and enforcement activity to protect haulage operators.
Answered by Sarah Jones
We fully recognise the serious and growing threat that freight crime poses to businesses, drivers, and the wider economy. This Government is determined to crack down on it. The incidence of cargo theft, where criminals rip the sides of lorries and take the goods inside, is frightening for drivers. The perception this crime is low risk and high reward is completely unacceptable.
We will continue to work with law enforcement agencies and invested stakeholders to find solutions to tackle these crimes.
Freight crimes are not currently separately identifiable in the centrally held police recorded crime data. Crimes involving the theft of freight are recorded by the police within broader vehicle-related theft categories. In order to monitor trends, we are piloting the use of a flag on police crime recording systems which officers can use to indicate that the crime they are investigating is freight crime.
We also work closely with Opal, the police’s national intelligence unit focused on serious organised acquisitive crime, including freight crime, and with the National Vehicle Intelligence Service (NaVCIS), a policing unit set up to investigate vehicle crime, including freight crime. We have regular discussions with both units about tackling organised freight crime.
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