The Home Office and Department for Transport have agreed on more funding for the National Metal Theft Taskforce. That develops intelligence, coordinates activity against criminal networks – the thieves and the criminal market, including elements of the scrap metal industry. More in the August print issue of Professional Security magazine.
The funding follows a request from the British Transport Police, which heads the taskforce. The government reports that it has put more than £6m in the initiative since it was launched in January 2012. The latest funding, which runs to the end of September 2014, will allow the taskforce to continue national days of action.
These targeted operations against unscrupulous scrap metal dealers, with police and local agencies, have so far resulted in more than 1000 arrests for theft and related offences and police have seized more than 600 vehicles involved in criminality.
Home Office Crime Prevention Minister, the Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker, pictured, said: “The coalition government has made it harder than ever before for metal thieves to prosper and our £6 million investment in the National Metal Theft Taskforce is reaping rewards. Alongside our reforms to ban cash payments and regulate the scrap metal trade, the taskforce has helped to make it much more difficult for thieves and unscrupulous dealers to profit from crime. This additional government funding will enable the taskforce to continue its programme of coordinated national days of action, which have so far resulted in more than 1,000 arrests and the seizure of hundreds of vehicles involved in criminality.”
And the Transport Minister Baroness Kramer said: “I am pleased we can continue to fund this nationally important organisation. The potential impact cable theft has on the railways is huge, not least the inconvenience to passengers. Network Rail has to compensate operators for the disruption and this is money which could be better spent on improving the network which is a vital part of our economic plan. For the last two years the taskforce has had a big impact in reducing the number of cables being stolen. Network Rail continues to report that the trend is in decline, with delays to passengers being at an all-time low.”
Background
Theft of metal – from utilities, trackside on railways, lead from church roofs and even memorial plaques – has been hard to stop because the metal is often unattended. Hence the authorities have sought to get upwind of the crime through legislation. Under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act which came into effect in October 2013, scrap metal dealers are now required to hold licences issued by local authorities.
The licences set standards for record keeping and customer verification and councils may revoke a licence at any time if they believe the dealer is no longer suitable to hold one.
Cash payments for scrap metal have been banned since December 2012. The Home Office points to a 40 per cent fall in the number of offences for the three months to the end of March 2013 compared to the three months to the end of June 2012. However security industry figures have told Professional Security that the supply of stolen metal depends on the demand, which depends on the world price for second-hand metal, which depends on the world economy. Any spike in the world demand for metal might mean metal again being more desirable to steal.
