You asked

I am trying to find some statistics relating to commercial vehicle fuel theft.

Initially it would be useful to know what information is available relating to commercial vehicle fuel theft.

Specifically, I would like to know how many reported cases of fuel theft there were over at least a one year period (most recent statistics), but preferably over a longer period if possible so that trends can be established over a longer term.

If there is any additional information available, it would be useful to know the source of the offence.

We said

Thank you for your enquiry regarding information relating to commercial vehicle fuel theft. Unfortunately, we are unable to answer your query due to the reasons set out in this response.

We hold data from two different sources of crime statistics: (i) the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), which is a survey of the general population and (ii) crimes reported to and recorded by the police. Data from both of these sources use an offence based classification system, with crimes being split into different categories based on the law and the Home Office Counting Rules, which defines how crimes should be classified by the police.

As such we are unable to separately identify commercial vehicle fuel theft as this is not a specific offence type and will be included within other categories such as ‘theft from a vehicle’ and ‘other theft’. We are therefore not able to provide you with the data you have requested.

It is possible that individual police forces may keep a record of specific incidents where fuel was stolen from a vehicle, so it may be worth contacting them directly to ask.

Apologies we cannot be of more help. If you would like any more information in the future, you can simply email us at CrimeStatistics@ons.gov.uk and we will endeavour to help.