Protect your home resources

When it comes to protecting your most important possessions, security starts at home. Here’s how you can reduce the risk of theft — and increase the chances of getting your property back if the worst happens.

Use a high-quality safe

• A secure safe is one of the smartest investments you can make for home security. Whether it's jewellery, passports, cash, or digital backups, a good safe can protect what matters most.
• Choose insurance-rated safes to meet your home contents policy requirements.
• Fire-rated safes offer added protection for documents and digital media in the event of a fire.
• Install your safe in a discreet location and secure it properly to the structure of your home.
• Top tip: Burglars want to get in and out fast. A bolted-down safe slows them down — and may make them leave empty-handed.

Mark and photograph your property

• Marking your valuables makes them much harder to sell and easier to identify if recovered by police.
• Use UV pens, engravers, or forensic marking solutions like SmartWater or SelectaDNA – this helps link them directly back to you. Find out more.
• Label items such as laptops, bikes, tools, mobile phones, gaming consoles, and even garden equipment.
• We also recommend you take photographs of your high value items such as jewellery and bikes - this will help not only to reunite the items with you, but also will support any insurance claim. Also make sure you keep receipts if you have them. 

Register with Immobilise

• Immobilise is the UK’s free national property register, used by police forces across the country - find out more.
• Register serial numbers of phones, laptops, tablets, bikes, and more.
• If your items are lost or stolen, update their status to alert second-hand retailers and police.
• Items flagged as stolen on Immobilise are far more likely to be recovered and returned.
• Why it matters: Police check Immobilise when they recover stolen property — if your item’s registered, they know exactly who to return it to.