Labour pledges to force tech companies to curb phone thefts if bosses don’t ‘design-out’ the ability to re-register stolen mobiles

Tech bosses must take urgent action to curb phone thefts – or the law will be changed to force them, Labour has warned.

One phone is stolen every four minutes in England and Wales – but only 1 per cent of thefts result in a charge.

Labour is urging tech companies to ‘design-out’ the crime by implementing a safety feature that would remove the ability to re-register stolen phones.

But if the tech giants refuse, the party has threatened to introduce new laws or regulations to force them to act.

Announcing the plan exclusively to the Daily Mail, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said phone theft is a ‘distressing and disorientating’ crime.

One phone is stolen every four minutes in England and Wales – but only one per cent of thefts result in a charge (Stock image)

She said: ‘This rise in phone theft demonstrates the Conservatives’ legacy of lawlessness after 14 damaging years.

‘Phone theft is a distressing and disorientating crime, but has become one that people think is not even worth reporting due to Tory failure to grip the situation – more criminals being let off and more victims being let down.

‘This is why we need urgent action involving tech companies, the police and the Government to design-out these crimes. We need firm action to protect the public and keep people safe

‘Labour will make Britain’s streets safe again.’

Phone theft is also driving serious and organised crime in Britain, Labour said.

Mobiles store vast amounts of personal data – from bank details to payment facilities – which criminals use to commit fraud. Criminals also sell on devices and their parts for profits.

Labour said 100,000 phone thieves got away with their crimes last year and continue to roam our streets.

The party has met with Apple, Google and Samsung to call for urgent action to design-out phone theft.

Labour believes that thefts could be curbed if phone companies restricted the re-registration of any device marked as stolen by users, and blocked access to key phone services – such as cloud services – to reduce the value of stolen phones. 

Labour has met with Apple, Google and Samsung to call for urgent action to design-out phone theft (File image of Google headquarters) 

If the phones are recovered and a user removed a theft notification, then the device would be usable again, Labour said.

More than 125,000 phones were stolen last year, but there were just 1,038 charges, according to FoI figures obtained from 27 out of 43 police forces.

The forces which responded recorded, on average, 4671 reports of phone thefts in 2023.

Labour extrapolated the data to show a national trend – suggesting there were 200,847 phone thefts recorded in 2023.

In 2018, there were 99,000 thefts.

Mobile phones are commonly stolen through pickpocketing, table surfing – a distraction technique – and by cyclists and motorcycles who snatch them from pedestrians.