Background
9.The recent growth of metal theft offences, driven by increased commodity costs, has highlighted the ineffectiveness of the existing registration scheme in the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964 which has not prevented the scrap metal industry being the central market for stolen metal.
10.In 2010/11, the Home Office estimated that there were 80,000-100,000 reported metal theft offences a year which cost the economy at least £220-£260m (Deloitte, 2011) and up to £777m per year (the Association of Chief Police Officers, 2010). The impact of metal theft was felt across the United Kingdom by a range of sectors – including national transport infrastructure, electricity and telecommunication links; street furniture; heritage buildings; memorials; and commercial and residential buildings.
11.It was widely considered that regulatory reform of the scrap metal sector was needed. Initial legislative steps to: prohibit cash payments for scrap metal; amend police powers of entry into unregistered scrap metal sites; and increase the existing financial penalties for offences in the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964 were contained in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 which amended the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964. These were brought into force in December 2012.