Rural crime inquiry hears ATV theft up 31% as MPs press police

MPs have begun examining organised crime’s grip on the countryside, with the Home Affairs Committee taking evidence from the head of the National Rural Crime Unit, police and crime commissioners and the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) on Tuesday, 13 October. The committee says the financial impact of rural crime peaked at £52.8m in 2023, and that all-terrain vehicle theft rose 31% in 2025.

The session, part of the committee’s inquiry into the impact of serious and organised crime on local neighbourhoods, focused on rural communities: the theft of machinery and livestock, illegal waste dumping, the forms organised crime takes in rural areas and the challenges of policing large, thinly covered ground, together with the drugs trade’s reach into rural areas and how the neighbourhood policing approach serves them.

Who gave evidence on rural crime?

The first panel brought together NFU vice president Robyn Munt with two academics, Dr Kate Tudor, associate professor in criminology at Durham University, and Dr Kreseda Smith, associate professor of rural criminology at Harper Adams University. The second heard from Andrew Huddleston KPM, head of the National Rural Crime Unit and the National Police Chiefs’ Council tactical lead for rural crime, alongside David Allen, police, fire and crime commissioner for Cumbria, and Donna Jones, police and crime commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Setting out the inquiry’s ground, the committee cited an NFU Mutual survey finding that nearly a third of farmers had changed their farming practices or left the industry altogether in response to rural crime.

Why should keepers and shoots be watching?

Quad bikes, trailers, tools and fuel are the staples of organised rural theft, and keepers’ yards and shoot sheds sit squarely on the target list. The same organised groups are behind hare coursing and machinery theft alike, which is why Lincolnshire Police’s relaunch of Operation Galileo this week leaned on intelligence-sharing with keepers and farmers. Parliamentary attention at this level shapes where policing money goes: written answers in September confirmed rural and wildlife crime units had recovered £32m of stolen property and secured continued Home Office funding.

What happens next

The committee continues its inquiry with further evidence sessions before reporting; its conclusions and any recommendations on neighbourhood policing in rural areas will go to the Home Office for a formal response. The session of 13 October can be watched in full on Parliament’s video service, and rural crime can be reported to police on 101, or anonymously through Crimestoppers.