Member

I now turn to Amendment 368 in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Cameron of Lochiel. This amendment was tabled in the other place by my honourable friend Matt Vickers and was supported by the Liberal Democrats. The Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act was introduced precisely because we recognised that theft of tools and equipment is not a victimless or low-level crime but one that can devastate self-employed tradespeople, small business people and farming communities. The harsh reality of tool theft is that it has a double impact on the victim: the tradesman loses his tools and so must incur the monetary cost of replacing them, but he also loses the means to carry out his work, resulting in lost income. In this regard, tool theft is worse than many other types of theft. That reality has not diminished: if anything, it has worsened.