METAL theft from historic places of worship, which increased during Covid lockdowns, has since declined owing to “effective preventative and enforcement motion”, recent research from Historic England and National Police Chiefs’ Council has shown.
Theft each of historic stone, including York stone, and of cultural artefacts, nevertheless, is on the rise: cultural property price greater than £3.2 million price was stolen within the period 2021-22.
The organisations — a part of the ARCH partnership (Alliance to Reduce Crime Against Heritage) — published the findings on Wednesday. They warn church communities that, despite the decline in lead-theft from church buildings, “it’s crucial for owners and communities to stay vigilant.”
The research shows that the theft of metal roofing, particularly lead, from historic churches increased by 41 per cent through the pandemic. “These offences are more likely to have been committed by each opportunistic offenders and organised crime groups,” the organisations say.
Between January and November 2023, church lead-theft was 26.2 per cent lower than in the identical period in 2022. “This could have been helped by improved security measures, the introduction of Heritage Watch schemes, and the prosecution of two organised crime groups answerable for stealing high volumes of roofing lead from historic church buildings from Dorset to Yorkshire.”
The latest figures, the research says, show that lead prices increased by eight per cent between January and November 2023, on the identical period the 12 months before.
There are 943 places of worship on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register in 2023, of which 53 are places of worship under threat due to heritage crime, including arson, theft, and vandalism.
The Heritage and Cultural Property Crime research was funded by Historic England, and carried out by crime analysts at Opal — the National Crime Intelligence Unit for Serious Organised Acquisitive Crime — and was conducted between February 2020 and February 2023.
The primary recommendations include the introduction of appropriate police systems, in addition to higher recording, collating, evaluation, and communication of heritage-related crimes and incidents. An absence of information, the organisations say, currently “limits our understanding of the true scale and extent of heritage crime within the historic environment and the right way to take care of it”.
