With rural crime escalating and policing facing its biggest shake-up in generations, Westminster was the setting this week for a timely call to put rural communities at the heart of the debate.
Supported by the Countryside Alliance, on Tuesday (08 September) the National Rural Crime Network (NRCN) hosted a drop-in session at the House of Commons marking National Rural Crime Action Week.
The event, kindly sponsored by Greg Smith MP (Mid Buckinghamshire, Con), saw MPs and peers from across the political spectrum attend to show their support for rural communities facing escalating levels of criminality and an uncertain future for policing. They heard directly from rural organisations that like the Alliance are partners with the NRCN, and from the police.
Top of the agenda was the government’s plans for police reform, which it describes as “the most significant modernisation in nearly 200 years”. One of its central proposals is the rationalisation of police forces from the current 43, mostly mirroring local government boundaries with some covering the major conurbations, down to a far smaller number of regional forces. Clearly this presents an opportunity to make efficiency savings, but as we queried in June:
“If there are to be fewer police forces, how can we be confident that resources will not be redirected from rural to urban settings within the larger areas they will cover? What new targets and reports will be set up to ensure that rural crimes are genuinely being responded to and investigated? Where will the specialist knowledge police officers need to respond effectively to rural crime sit, and can and should it be expanded?”
It was particularly interesting to discuss with the newly-appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Harriet Cross MP (Gordan and Buchan, Con), what lessons should be learned from the amalgamation of the nation’s forces into Police Scotland in 2013.
MPs from several of the main parties – Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative – shared our concern about spiralling levels of waste crime, which was the subject of a major policy report authored by the Countryside Alliance and co-published by the NRCN and Future Countryside in June.
We highlighted that the investigation of major waste incidents is the responsibility of the Environment Agency rather than the police, which can be problematic because the organised criminal gangs responsible for the worst incidents often have interests in other criminal activity, including drug trafficking and thefts of valuable farming equipment. While the Environment Agency retains that duty – and we have recommended examining the case for transferring serious waste crime investigations to a dedicated police unit – there is a clear policing interest in ensuring that intelligence is shared closely between agencies. Embedded liaison personnel could form part of the solution. We also raised the need for a single reporting route for fly-tipping, whatever its scale and wherever it is found.
Lastly we and our partner organisations once again expressed our disappointment at the government’s decision to water down the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023, a law designed to make ATVs and other farming vehicles harder to steal. Ministers have declined to introduce its central provision, a requirement that all new vehicles must be sold with a fitted engine immobiliser, leaving only its more minor provisions that require forensic marking and registrations of new sales. We and they will continue to press for the Act’s full implementation.
The event lived up to our hope that it would provide a valuable opportunity to talk directly to politicians from across both Houses of Parliament and build the case for concerted action in defence of rural communities against crime. That effort will continue throughout this National Rural Crime Action Week and beyond.