Both issues came to light through written answers to parliamentary questions published on 23 June.
Home Office minister Sarah Jones acknowledged that cargo theft — where criminals slash open the sides of lorries to steal goods — is a serious and growing problem. She described it as frightening for HGV drivers and said the perception that such crime is low-risk and high-reward is unacceptable.
To address it, the Home Office has agreed with police to introduce a “freight crime flag” — essentially a label that officers attach to relevant crime reports when logging them. The data will be collected as part of annual national police data returns.
The flag is currently being tested in a small number of police forces. After the data returns have been assessed, the intention is to roll it out nationally.
The move addresses a longstanding problem: without a standard way of categorising these offences, it has been difficult to build a national picture of how widespread freight crime is, where it is concentrated, or how much of it is organised. Jones confirmed that no formal assessment has yet been carried out to establish how much freight crime is linked to organised crime groups.
Lorry parking: spaces promised, delivery uncertain
A separate answer from transport minister Keir Mather showed that the government cannot yet confirm how many new secure HGV parking spaces have been created since July 2024. The most recent official count — from a national survey published in September 2022 — put the number of HGV on-site parking spaces in England at 16,761. A new survey is currently under way.
Two government funding schemes have been set up to expand and improve lorry parking: a match-funding grant scheme launched in 2022, and a National Highways scheme from 2023 focused on the strategic road network.
Together, they are estimated to deliver up to 1,800 new spaces. However, Mather said the Department for Transport could not break down how many had been completed since July 2024, as projects were funded and built at different times. Additional spaces may also have been created by private operators outside the schemes.
National Highways will continue working with operators under the next Roads Investment Strategy to expand parking and improve security and welfare facilities for drivers.
The government also consulted earlier this year on planning policy changes for freight and logistics developments, including access to transport networks and appropriate lorry parking provision. A response to that consultation is expected in due course.
