UK government criticized as phone thefts spiral unchecked • The Register
MPs have blasted the UK government for complacency over surging mobile thefts after a “long-delayed” summit on the issue disappeared into the New Year.
In a letter to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Dame Chi Onwurah, chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, raised the prospect of families unwrapping new phones on Christmas Day – then being too scared to leave the house thanks to inaction from phone vendors and the government.
“While people may be worried about keeping their new possessions safe from theft on Britain’s streets, it seems that the government is not nearly as concerned about the risks to property and privacy,” she thundered.
A statement from the committee added that six months after it heard from experts, tech companies, and the Metropolitan Police about technological solutions to deter phone theft, “the government has still failed to act.”
Onwurah had followed the evidence session with an October letter to the government, arguing “phone theft can be designed out using technical solutions that make stolen phones less valuable.” She also said the government needs to adopt a more robust stance on “spiraling phone theft and hold its much-delayed follow-up phone theft summit.”
Tech companies and the government, she claimed, had shown little urge to implement measures such as cloud-based blocking or IMEI-linked device locks.
Today, the committee revealed it had received a “holding reply” from the government in November. This vaguely said meetings with police and industry “were taking place in the coming weeks.”
This would “include discussions on the way tech companies, the Met Police, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, and government can each maximize their impact on this issue. I will write again to update you on progress shortly.”
The committee said: “This holding response offered no answers, commitment to action, or clarity on when the summit will take place, or why it had been delayed for so long.”
This smacked of complacency, Onwurah added, and “without action, theft could keep surging, and Christmas gifts remain at risk.”
This raises a bleak alternative of family members having to do jigsaws, play charades, or even talk to each other, presumably.
Back in June, the Met Police’s chief digital data and technology officer told the committee that 80,000 smartphones were reported as stolen in London alone in 2024, up from 64,000 in 2023.
He said that blocking at the IMEI level could put a big dent in the international trade since most stolen handsets end up abroad. But Apple argued this would only create other attack vectors, while Google said its relationship with customers was through the cloud, not devices. ®
