19 April 2017
London

Metal theft affects everyone, whether they know it or not. This crime continues to pose a significant problem in the UK, with an estimated cost to the UK economy of £770 million according to the Association of Chief Police Officers. There are also personal, societal and environmental costs, whether it is damage to a church roof, power outages or rail passengers and train operating companies faced with costly delays after cable has been stolen from the railway. Latest figures reveal that there were 16,155 metal theft offences recorded by the police (42 forces) in the year ending March 2016, a decrease of over a third (38%) compared with the same forces for the previous year. Over the same period (for the same 42 police forces) infrastructure-related metal theft offences, which include those that have a direct impact on the functioning or structure of buildings or services, decreased by 36% while non-infrastructure-related metal theft decreased by 40%. There were 3 metal theft offences per 10,000 population in England in Wales in the latest year.

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