(South West Bedfordshire)
(Con): May we have an urgent debate about the action
that is needed to deal with the theft of tools? I hope that the
Leader of the House shares my horror at this particularly
pernicious crime. Someone who steals a self-employed
tradesperson’s tools steals their livelihood, and many of those
people cannot claim on their insurance. This is a serious issue,
and we need to deal with it.
The Leader of the House of Commons (Andrea
Leadsom): My hon. Friend has raised a very
important point. I think that we all understand the distress and
disruption caused by this type of crime and the effect that it
has on victims, particularly when they rely on the tools of their
trade to earn a living. It is absolutely clear that all this type
of crime should be reported to the police so that it can be
properly investigated. It is, of course, for chief constables and
Police and Crime Commissioners to decide how best to deploy
resources to manage and respond to individual crimes.
In my constituency we recently had a successful operation that
resulted in the return of many stolen tools as a result of good
police intelligence and good reporting by the victims.
(Eltham) (Lab): On
Monday evening a man was rammed off his motorbike, stabbed and
had his motorbike stolen. He is in a critical condition in
hospital. The week before, a young man was stabbed at half-past 3
in the afternoon. Fortunately, he is not in a critical condition.
May we have a debate in Government time about the impact of a cut
of 21,000 police officers on the police’s ability to apprehend
the people carrying out these atrocious crimes?
: May I say to the
hon. Gentleman how sorry I am to hear about these appalling
crimes? It is totally unacceptable, and our hearts go out to the
victims.
In the spring statement, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of
the Exchequer announced an extra £100 million in the short term
to allow Police and Crime Commissioners to allocate more
resources to tackling knife crime. Importantly, we have
introduced the Offensive Weapons Bill, which includes a new knife
crime prevention order that will give police more powers to stop
people carrying knives and prevent young people from accessing
knives online. We have extended stop-and-search powers, and under
Operation Sceptre police forces are undertaking co-ordinated
national weeks of action to tackle knife crime. The Government
are taking a huge number of steps in collaboration with local
police forces to try to get a grip on the appalling rise in knife
crime.
