Ministers could force phone companies to add 'anti-theft protections'

Policing minister Sarah Jones has said that unless there is a drop in the number of mobile phones being stolen, the government could force phone companies to add "anti-theft protections" to their products.

Writing to the Science and Technology Committee, she said the Home Office had so far chosen to work collaboratively with the tech giants to reduce thefts, but would consider legislation if she did not see progress.

Phone thefts have been particularly prevalent in London, but numbers are starting to fall.

Samsung said it was "fully committed" to protecting its customers and had "worked quickly to make a significant amount of security enhancements to help address this issue".

Apple said it had "led the industry in protections and features to deter theft".

Jones' letter comes months after Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley urged the government to compel all phone companies to make stolen devices "unusable bricks".

Speaking to the BBC in June, Sir Mark said the market for stolen phones relied "on the fact that security hasn't been good enough on these devices" allowing stolen phones to be reset using "dodgy software" and resold as new.

However, he added that Apple - the biggest seller of mobile phones in the UK - had been able to "crack" the engineering problem and since then the "vast majority" of phones stolen in London had not been reset.

"That shows they are right and their security is making a difference," he said.

In her letter - published last week and first reported by The Times - Jones said: "My overriding objective remains to see that the proportion of stolen devices being reused/reactivated reducing, as this should support a reduction in the number of devices being stolen.

"If there is no means to reactivate a stolen device, its value is significantly reduced, alongside the incentive to steal it."

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She acknowledged that work between the Met Police and phone companies had been "constructive" and that the results were "promising", pointing to data showing there were 14,700 mobile phone thefts in London in the past year - a fall of 18.7%.

Jones said the fall was "welcome" but added that she wanted further reductions and that officials in her department were developing new laws that could introduce a "technical standard for anti-theft protections".

She noted the government had so far opted for a collaborative approach with the companies but warned: "If at any point I am not satisfied about the pace of progress in the context of efforts being made, we will legislate."

The Science and Technology Committee held an inquiry into mobile phone thefts last year.

At one hearing, Conservative MP Kit Malthouse asked if companies were "dragging their feet" due to "a very strong commercial incentive".

"The fact that £50m-worth of phones are stolen in London every year means that, if that stopped, £50m of sales would be depressed," he said.

The companies giving evidence to the committee rejected the suggestion they were profiting from phone thefts.

Responding to Jones' letter, a spokesperson for Samsung said: "We recognise how distressing phone theft can be and have worked quickly to make a significant amount of security enhancements to help address this issue, completing several requests from both the Home Office and the Met Police over the last 18 months to demonstrate how seriously we take this issue.

"We have a number of features that would render phones unusable if stolen, including Factory Reset Protection, which restricts a device when a factory reset is attempted and requires authentication with the previous Google account.

"Additional One UI anti-theft features include both Identity Check, which requires biometric authentication for any sensitive security setting changes, and Security Delay, which activates a one hour delay if there is an unauthorised attempt to reset biometric data."

In a statement, Apple UK said: "We take all threats against our users very seriously and are in close contact with the Met Police and Home Office to ensure they are aware of our initiatives to combat phone theft and are dedicated to supporting their efforts to defeat the criminals targeting our users.

"Apple has led the industry in protections and features to deter theft, including Find My, Lost Mode, Stolen Device Protection, Activation Lock, and Activation Lock for parts, which minimise the incentives for thieves to target Apple devices and help protect our users and their data even if their device is stolen, and we are committed to our innovation in this area."