Home Department written question – answered at on 15 May 2006.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department
(1) if he will make a statement on the operation of the Mobile Phones (Re-Programming) Act 2002; what recent representations he has received about the operation of this Act; if he will place in the Library copies of such representations; and whether he plans to (a) amend and (b) repeal this Act;
(2) what steps he (a) has taken and (b) plans to take to reduce the theft of mobile phones; and if he will make a statement.
Action to address mobile phone theft is a key element in the Government's programme to reduce robbery. The Street Crime Initiative has helped develop a strong and successful partnership between Government, industry and police which has led to several key actions being delivered.
These include a database of stolen and lost mobile phones that can be blocked on any network and providing funding, with the Metropolitan police, for the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit to focus specific operations on reducing mobile phone theft.
The Government also introduced the Mobile Telephones (Re-programming) Act 2002 which was welcomed by the police and industry alike. The purpose of the Act was to support the industry and the police in ensuring that stolen phones could not be further used by thieves.
According to National Mobile Phone Crime Unit statistics, from January 2004 to December 2005 there have been over 400 individual police operations. A number of custodial sentences and fines have resulted from the legislation.
Following representations from the industry and the police the Government have sought to strengthen the provisions in the Act, by introducing an amendment to the Violent Crime Reduction Bill to make it an offence to offer or agree to re-programme a mobile phone.
Copies of representations have been placed in the Library. The Government will keep this legislation under review to ensure its effectiveness.
In addition to public information and awareness campaigns, the Government intend to further strengthen the partnership with the mobile phone industry and the police to build on these measures and ensure that mobile phone theft remains a priority for action.
Yes1 person thinks so
No0 people think not
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Annotations
Chris Lightfoot
Posted on 16 May 2006 6:33 pm (Report this annotation)
Whatever its supposed purpose, the effect of the Mobile Phones (Re-programming) Act is to prohibit an individual from modifying the firmware of a phone, even one they themselves own; instead only manufacturers and those authorised by manufacturers are allowed to change the firmware of phones. It's hard to see why the government is so keen to prohibit mobile phone users from modifying the firmware of their phones, but presumably they were got at by the industry, which is very keen indeed on preventing consumers from doing so, since price discrimination is essential to their business models.
"A number of custodial sentences and fines have resulted from the legislation."
I note that zero is a number.