Ministers are accused of being too timid in forcing phone companies to bring in blocking software to turn stolen phones into valueless ‘bricks’
Puzzled MPs have accused the Government of being too timid in forcing phone companies to bring in a kill switch for stolen mobiles.
Police have pleaded with ministers to bring in legislation forcing companies to disable devices at the touch of a button if they are snatched. Thousands of phones are snatched each year across the UK, and the head of the Met Police called on MPs to help make pinched phones worthless.
Pressure is mounting on the Home Office to bring forward new legislation compelling firms like Apple to do so. It comes amid warnings organised crime gangs are stealing phones to sell overseas.
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Tory MP Kit Malthouse said: “We now understand that this is a serious and organised crime issue, in that there are large criminal organisations having these phones stolen, put into large batches and sent across the world, mainly to China and to Algeria, which we know from the connection records.
“We had the mobile phone companies before the (Science, Innovation and Technology) Committee and said to them, ‘There is a very simple solution here, which is you make the phones worthless by not allowing them to reconnect to the cloud in other parts of the world’.
“They could do that with the flick of a switch, and they said they would not.” And he said police are pleading for help.
Last week Home Office minister Dan Jarvis said the Government would respond within a fortnight. Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley told another committee that blocking technology would be a huge boost in efforts to stop phone snatching.
He told MPs on the home affairs committee: “If you had your phone stolen and you were able to deactivate it so that it was a brick forever and could not be reconverted into a usable phone, that would completely kill the second-hand value. There would be a couple of parts in the phone – maybe the screen and the cameras – but it would be pretty useless. That would have a big effect.”
Labour MP Chi Onwurah, who chairs the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, said: “There are proven technical solutions that manufacturers can implement to make stolen phones much less valuable, but they’re unlikely to move on this without pressure from government.
“Why won’t the government take a strong stance? We urgently need co-ordinated action between government, industry and the police to ensure effective deterrents are in place. Without this, the public’s property, well-being and privacy are at risk.”
A Home Office spokesperson told The Mirror: “Phone theft is a despicable crime, and we understand the public’s concern about it. We recognise the role that technical solutions can have in breaking the business model of phone theft.
“The Met Police is working with technology partners to explore the quickest and most effective solutions.” Data published by the Met Police shows 117,211 phones were stolen in London in 2024.
And the National Crime Survey found that in the year to September 2025 there was a 15% increase in theft from the person, with 151,220 offences in England and Wales.
But Sir Mark said targeted policing in places like the West End had helped bring this down. He told MPs: “We are arresting 1,000 more people a month and doubling the number of shoplifting cases we are prosecuting, and there are going to be at least 10,000 fewer victims of phone theft this year compared with last year, with all the operations the teams are doing.”
He revealed that organised crime gangs are exporting stolen phones to be sold overseas after they are snatched on London’s streets. The Met chief said: “If you look at phone thefts, you have people on the streets stealing them, and some of them are teenagers who know they can make some quick money out of it.
“That is not really organised. Some of it is more organised. We have had some organised pickpocketing gangs coming from eastern Europe and elsewhere. Then you have people who are acting as handlers.
“Some of them are reselling them in London, and some of them are passing them on to third parties, who are exporting them internationally, so you have the whole international trade. We have been working on operations across that spectrum.
“At the top end of that, we have been dealing with some organised crime groups based in London and working with the National Crime Agency to connect to law enforcement in China and other countries where phones are being exported.”