The British Metals Recycling Association believes that data on metal theft do not take important factors into account.
Data published recently by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicate that metal thefts have declined since the introduction of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013. However, they do not appear to take a number of important factors into account, the British Metals Recycling Association (BMRA) believes.
Metal theft actually began falling across England and Wales in 2011 due to more active enforcement of existing legislation (SMDA: 1964), which was largely driven by political concern regarding national infrastructure and smooth-running of the Olympics.
As a direct result of the roll-out of Operation Tornado and enhanced ‘voluntary’ record-keeping, metal theft continued to fall throughout 2012. BTP’s own figures show a reduction of metal theft of up to 60 percent (and on average of over 50 percent) in Operation Tornado trial areas. These reductions were largely maintained following the introduction of Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act and, latterly, the SMDA in 2013.
In fact, in its report published in 2015, An evaluation of government/law enforcement aimed at reducing metal theft, the Home Office concludes that it was this package of interventions that drove a reduction in offences over and about the effect of a fall in metal prices.
Other factors that contributed to the fall in metal thefts include extensive media coverage making the risks of handling potentially stolen metals became too high for all but the most unscrupulous.
It should also be noted that the ONS figures often fail to differentiate between metal theft and other offences (due to past shortcomings of how metal theft was being reported by the police).
Yet, since September 2014, there has been no specific police funding to tackle metal theft. One main reason metal theft hasn’t increased significantly since that time is the historically-low metal prices. However, we are beginning to see metal prices increase (lead is going from strength to strength) and our very real concern is metal theft is about to make a comeback.