Member

The very documents that promote this strategy also set out why a more ambitious strategy for a rural crime prevention framework—the kind envisaged in this amendment—is desperately required. The national policing lead accepts that specific rural offences are cross-border, involve a high degree of planning and co-ordination, increasingly rely on and relate to international networks, and have substantial impacts on our rural communities. This is not just localised offending but serious organised crime networks, as has been said. We need to recognise that this type of crime is different. The geography, the victim profiles and the opportunities are different. Crucially, the sense of isolation and vulnerability is extremely different from those who live in our urban areas. We must not allow our rural communities to become the playgrounds for serious organised criminal networks.