Speaking on the day three of Anti-Tool Theft Week, on The Clive Holland Show, Conservative MP for Buckingham, Greg Smith said he was “confident that there is a head of steam powerful enough to really break through”, on the issue.

“We just have to find the vehicle, whether it is an amendment to existing legislation like the Police, Crime, Courts and Sentencing Bill or a bespoke bit of legislation specifically around this,” he commented.

In April of this year, Smith introduced a ten-minute bill to the House of Commons that sort to force sellers using online marketplaces to provide searchable product serial numbers for any ‘second hand’ tools they were offering.

Unfortunately, the bill died when the parliamentary session ended in May, but Smith vowed to continue to plug away at the issue.

In the last six months Smith has met with Kit Malthouse, Minister of State for Crime and Policing, frontbench MPs and backbenchers to lobby on the tool theft issue. “I’m a bit like a dog with a bone with this one, I’m not letting it go,” said the MP.

“I am keeping on the pressure with government to take tool theft seriously within the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice,” he added.

Despite the lack of progress around the issue, Smith asks for patience – government works “incredibly slowly”.

“You always have to accept with government there are a million different competing priorities particularly in the Home Office,” Smith added.

The response from the various online marketplace firms, such as eBay, Facebook and Gumtree has been equally none-committal. Although none of these sites want stolen items ‘fenced’ on through their platforms, they haven’t rushed to solve the issue either.

According to Smith, eBay pushed back on the “technical details” around creating ‘searchable’ serials numbers and forcing sellers to use them on the marketplace.

eBay were asked to appear on Anti-Tool Theft Week, but they declined the offer.

The Buckingham MP has also lobbied tool manufacturers about tool theft. He is urging tool makers to combine product receipts with serial numbers to streamline product documentation.

He also wants to see manufacturers “push research and development around how tracking chips can be put into tools,” said Smith.