Ministers have decided to side with equipment manufacturers who benefit from equipment theft (since it generates more sales for them) rather than builders who suffer or the police who are losing the war on crime without legislation.
The Home Office has finally begun to take the next steps on the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023. The legislation, as initially drafted as a private members鈥� bill in June 2022, was designed to combat the theft of all terrain vehicles, specifically farmers鈥� quad bikes. The act gave Home Office ministers the power to introduce secondary legislation that would mandate improved security measures such as forensic marking, immobilisers, and mandatory record-keeping.
Quad bikes and all-terrain vehicles are specified in the act but some hoped that secondary legislation would enable it to be expanded to cover other equipment, from diggers to power tools. But it is not to be.
Sarah Jones MP, minister of state for policing and crime, has decided that the requirement for tagging will only extend to all-terrain vehicles and removable global positioning systems.
Proposals to include mandatory immobilisers and to extend the scope of the legislation to cover larger agricultural and construction equipment, as well as hand-held power tools, will not be taken forward at this time, the Home Office said.聽
The government decided that extending the regulations to larger machinery and to tools was considered too complicated.
Superintendent Andrew Huddleston of the National Rural Crime Unit, based at Northumbria Police HQ, worked with Greg Smith MP in the drafting of the original bill and was subsequently part of a team drafting proposed secondary legislation. He told 猛料视频 two years ago that the legislation was never meant to be just about quad bikes.
鈥淭his bill is absolutely targeting the construction industry. Period,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you look at the thefts we are getting across the board, we see more stolen construction equipment than agricultural.鈥�
The plan envisaged by Huddleston and former Conservative government鈥檚 policing minister Chris Philp. was for professional power tools to be required to have some sort of forensic marking enabling ownership to be traced 鈥� perhaps something as simple as Smart Water, although their legislation would have avoided mandating specific brands or schemes. Larger machinery will likely be required to have immobilisers fitted.
However, certain manufacturers considered the legislation a threat since they and the insurance companies benefitted from the crime epidemic. 聽
As Lord Blencathra told the House of Lords during passage of the primary legislation: 鈥淟et the message go out to a minority of manufacturers that their sales strategy of selling equipment which can be easily stolen so that they can sell replacements over and over again is coming to an end.鈥�
Huddleston said he and the National Rural Crime Unit faced resistance when trying to persuade manufacturers to help make their products traceable and less attractive to thieves. He told us two years ago that some had stopped talking to him. 鈥淚 am disappointed at manufacturers鈥� responses,鈥� he said.
The Construction Equipment Association (CEA), which represents the UK鈥檚 off-highway equipment manufacturers, acknowledged that 鈥渇or many manufacturers, the decision to narrow the focus will come as welcome news, given the practical and engineering challenges of applying uniform standards to construction鈥�.
The CEA owns the Construction Equipment Security & Registration Scheme (CESAR), voluntary machine tagging scheme launched in 2007. More than 80% of domestic UK construction equipment manufacturers now fit CESAR tags as standard, and the scheme is approaching its 700,000th registered machine.
Some had hoped that the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 would, by default, see the CESAR laggards get on board. For the power tool sector, however, there is no industry-wide scheme or initiative to act as a springboard. 聽
CEA chief executive Viki Bell said: 聽鈥淭he government鈥檚 decision reflects the complexity of developing security regulations that apply consistently across multiple equipment types. It is essential to recognise that the UK鈥檚 construction equipment industry already leads by example in theft prevention and traceability through self-regulation.
鈥淭he CESAR scheme remains the recognised benchmark for equipment marking and identification, and we are pleased that its standards have helped inform the proposed regulations for ATVs and GPS units. The CEA will continue to work collaboratively with government and law enforcement partners to share best practice and support efforts to reduce machinery theft across all sectors.鈥�
See also:聽Equipment theft: who really loses?
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