Senior Apple and Google people clashed with police with their advice on how to best deal with phone theft in the UK.

Mets' James Conway told Commons Science, Innovation and the Technical Committee that the committee is considering the issue - two-thirds of thefts in London are now related to cell phones.

He told MPs that up to 70% of knife crimes are linked to robbery, which means phone theft is “a large part of our violence problem”.

Mets want phone companies to use a unique identification number (called IMEI), i.e. every device must block any device that has been reported as stolen.

But Apple and Google (which dominates the market) have raised concerns about the idea.

"Concentrating on IMEI blocking may miss some issues," Apple law enforcement director Gary Davis told the committee.

“We are worried about a vector of fraud…we are worried about a world, that is someone who claims to be the owner.”

The stolen devices are used by telephone networks in the UK through the use of IMEI, but not worldwide.

This means that if criminals can bypass the security of the device, they can still use stolen phones in some other countries.

But Mr Davis said he was worried that phone owners had faced "widespread fraud attempts" and he estimated more than a thousand people were trying to access the device every month.

"They did this for malicious purposes, maybe to blackmail you," he said.

“I want to think in an area like this what the expertise we have built over time related to attack vectors would mean.”

The companies noted that they have implemented several new security features over the past 12 months to help combat phone theft.

Apple introduced stolen device protection, while Google-owned Android (Android) brought theft detection lock.

Police said they are looking for a telephone provider to prevent further theft.

Darren Scates, chief technology officer of the Metropolitan Metropolitan, said 75% of the stolen phones were moved abroad, with 28% of them ending up in China or Hong Kong.

“We require cloud providers to specifically prevent lost or stolen devices from connecting to their cloud services,” he said.

“It doesn’t even require police participation.”

He said they have been asking for this since October 2023, but have not convinced the company to take action.

Some MPs accused the two tech companies of lack of willingness to take action.

"Tomorrow you can stop your phone on the IMEI blacklist and go back to your service if you want, and neither of you will."

"I'm not saying we won't do that," replied Simon Wingrove, software engineering manager at Google.

He said the global database of IMEI digital is built, maintained, population-filled, read and used by network operators.

"If we want to change it so that it becomes a database for other participants to use other things to block them in other ways, that's my power to be an engineer at Google," he said.

“I think we need to decide as a safe and wise industry.”

He noted that Android's factory reset protection is an area where it continues to work to improve security and makes it harder for thieves to reset stolen devices.

"The latest changes we announced in the recent version of Android," he said.

“We really hope we’ll see a big impact – we haven’t stopped investing.”

However, one of the main clues of the day was a clash between MPs and Mr. Davis on the market for second-hand parts.

He told the committee about frustration with the attendees, and he told the committee: “I am worried if we focus on IMEI to stop you from missing the market.”

"It is obvious from the mood of the committee that we do not think that Google or Apple have effective phone protection programs without the need for effective phone protection involving IMEI," said Labour MP Chi Onwurah.

Apple fears that when the device is stolen, instead of reusing it elsewhere, it is chopped into component parts (such as screens, processors, and batteries) and can then be sold for repairs.

"Our best protection is to activate the lock," he said.

"I know you'd think it obviously doesn't work because there are still devices stolen. But that's the best protection."

Activation locks are a feature that connects certain iPhone or iPad components to a person's Apple ID - meaning a person must use a password to allow these parts of their device to be repaired.

The feature was widely welcomed when it was announced in September as a way to deal with thieves.

But the committee wants to focus on blocking IMEIs that are stolen phones used elsewhere.

"For a lot of people, you're shuffling," said conservative MP Kate Malthouse.

But Mr. Davis said he believes that activating the lock is a "major step" to destroy the second-hand market.

"It is very likely that IMEI stopping is the next step in nature," he said.

“But I want to make sure the Metropolitan Police continues to do traditional policing, which means sending us requests to get the stolen equipment, and Apple responded to those requests.

“We didn’t see that, and I think it’s important.”