Backbench Business Committee debate on mobile phone theft, House of Commons, 3 July 2025

• Trading Standards teams are not equipped to regulate the second-hand mobile phone market. These teams do not routinely inspect such premises and lack the powers or resources to address the complex, global nature of the resale market – including online platforms (e.g., Facebook Marketplace), international resale (e.g., Ghana), and parts stripping (e.g., Shenzhen). The LGA urges realistic expectations of Trading Standards and calls for a focus on technological solutions and international cooperation.
• Councils often operate public space CCTV systems, which are crucial for deterring and investigating mobile phone theft. However, these systems are non-statutory and receive no direct government funding. The LGA recommends dedicated, sustainable funding to support councils in maintaining and upgrading CCTV infrastructure.
• Stolen phones must be made harder to use or resell. Potential technological deterrents include mandatory kill switches to permanently disable stolen devices; stronger activation locks (e.g., biometric or multi-factor authentication); and expanded IMEI blacklisting to block stolen phones globally. The LGA supports government collaboration with industry and international partners to implement these measures.
• The domestic resale market must be tightened. This could include requiring proof of ownership before phones can be sold to retailers or online platforms and enforcing stricter identity verification for sellers on platforms like Facebook Marketplace and eBay. We urge the Government to work with online marketplaces to close these loopholes.
• International resale routes must be disrupted; many stolen phones are exported in bulk or stripped for parts and reassembled abroad. We suggest that the Government considers enhanced border checks for bulk phone exports and greater collaboration with international law enforcement to recover stolen devices and dismantle global resale networks.

• Some figures exist regarding annual mobile phone thefts through crime surveys; however, the data is inconsistent. Blocking policies and security features have been cited as reasons for a decline in mobile phone theft in 2010 and 2015. Since at least 2022, there has been an increase in London that has been attributed to out of date security features and a growing resale demand.
• In 2022, the Met Police reported 90,864 phones stolen – nearly 250 per day – accounting for 38 per cent of all personal robberies.
• Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) data between September 2023 and September 2024 estimates over 200 snatch thefts daily across England and Wales – the highest rate in over a decade.
• The latest CSEW estimates show that over one third (36 per cent) of theft from the person offences involved mobile phones in the past year.
• Criminal tactics include disabling tracking features, using signal-blocking materials, exploiting weak PINs, and wiping phones via USB debugging or firmware resets.

• Councils play a crucial role in promoting community cohesion, reducing reoffending, combatting anti-social behaviour (ASB), tackling knife crime and countering extremism. But councils need resources, alongside reform of the partnership landscape, to best deliver their role. The Government should establish a long-term, unified funding stream for community safety for three to five years, directly allocated to councils or Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs). This funding should increase CSP capacities, including analytics, wardens, and CCTV, with local discretion on usage. The Government should also reform the CSP landscape to ensure they have adequate powers, and fund preventative services to address childhood adversity and poor mental health.
• A broader range of council services, such as youth services, youth offending programmes, mental health support, family services and early childhood services, can help prevent crime and reduce future offending, improving outcomes for children and families and ultimately saving costs in the criminal justice system. Investment in these services addresses root causes, improves outcomes for residents and prevents costly long-term interventions.

D’jaleh McCrystal, Public Affairs and Campaigns

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