FOI Building Material Thefts (0289-2022/23)

Request

Please can you provide information on reports of theft of building materials, equipment and tools from commercial properties and vehicles? Specifically, I’d like to request the number of reports of these types of theft within your jurisdiction from 1st January 2020 to the present (5th July 2022), broken down by calendar year.

Where possible please provide the total cost of the claims for each theft. If you could also provide me with a basic description of the items stolen in each report, that would be greatly appreciated.

Response

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you.

Please see the below table for the number of thefts of tools, building materials and equipment from 1 January 2020 to 5 July 2022, broken down by year.

	2020	2021	2022	Total
Building Materials	187	89	49	325
Tools	512	299	203	1014
Equipment	570	169	151	890
Total	1269	557	403	2229

Please see the below table for the value of of tools, building materials and equipment stolen from 1 January 2020 to 5 July 2022, broken down by year.

	Value
2020	£536 637.54
2021	£269 161.99
2022	£161 035.79
Total	£966 835.32

*Please note that the value of items taken may not accurately reflect the total value of good as the value field is not a mandatory field and relies entirely on the reportee providing accurate information and the officer recording the incident as reported.

Please see the below table for the types of items taken. I have listed all items mentioned by the reporting person at the time of the offence. I have no listed the number or quantity of items taken as this would not be possible under the time allowed undet the act.

Building Materials	Tools	Equipment
Paving Materials	Chainsaw	Mini Dumper Truck
Timber	Drill	Digger Bucket
Copper Pipe	Grinder	Cultivator
Combi boilers	Generators	Cable Locator
Electric Cable	Whacker Plate	Safety Harnesses
Plywood	Circular Saw	Hedge Trimmer
Insulation	Water Pump	Bird Scarer
UPVC Doors & Windows	Impact Driver	Climbing Ropes
Stone Chippings	Laser Level	Inspection Camera
Lead Flashings	Planer	Welding Helmets

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.