Nearly 90% of vehicle theft cases reported to the Metropolitan Police remain unresolved, prompting calls for a national task force to address the problem.
Data compiled by the House of Commons library at the request of the Liberal Democrats reveals that the London police are the least effective in the nation when it comes to tackling car theft.
The findings indicated that 88.5% of stolen vehicles in London have not been recovered.
The Metropolitan Police acknowledged that car theft has a “substantial effect on victims and communities,” while noting a nearly 15% decline in car theft incidents over the last eight months.
A representative for the Met reported that recorded vehicle crimes, which include thefts, dropped by 14.7%, from 71,929 incidents between April and December 2024 to 61,362 during the same timeframe this year.
Meanwhile, the City of London Police has an unsolved vehicle crime rate of 81.5%, although it covers a significantly smaller area known as the Square Mile.
Max Wilkinson MP, the Liberal Democrats’ spokesman on home affairs, criticized the previous Conservative administration for “years of counterproductive cuts to our police services,” and urged the current Labour government to address this crisis rather than overlook it.
The party is advocating for the establishment of a dedicated unit within the National Crime Agency that would aggregate data from automatic number plate recognition systems, insurance records, and intelligence from police and border control to combat organized vehicle theft rings.
According to the data, there were 121,825 recorded vehicle thefts across police forces in England and Wales, with 92,958 of those cases closed without any suspects being identified.
In 35 out of 44 police forces in England and Wales, the rate of unsolved cases reached 60% or higher, averaging 76.3% of all investigations concluding without a named suspect.
A Home Office representative commented that “not enough efforts have been made to prevent these crimes or to hold perpetrators accountable.”
He added that the government is “implementing new legislation to prohibit the use of electronic devices for vehicle theft, providing training to police officers on theft methods, and collaborating with the industry to mitigate vulnerabilities in vehicles.”
The spokesman further mentioned that vehicle crime decreased by 12% in the year leading up to June 2025, including a 7% reduction in vehicle thefts.
The Conservatives have been invited to provide a response.
