The Home Office is asking mobile phone recycling firms to check if handsets sent in to them are stolen.
The Government is in the process of writing up a "code of practice" which would require recycling companies to check the National Mobile Phone Register to see if handsets sent in were in fact stolen.
The Home Office claimed that 90 per cent of stolen handsets are blocked for UK use within 48 hours, but many are shipped overseas where they can still be used.
The Home Office claimed that 100,000 stolen handsets worth an average 25 go through recycling companies, which often send old phones out of the country for resale. Such firms pay users to send in their old mobile phones, which are then sold off overseas or recycled for parts or materials.
So far, 13 firms have signed on to check their handsets against the register - 20:20 Mobile, Anovo/Love2Recycle, Fonebank, Environmental Mobile Control, Mazuma, MPRO, Redeem, Royal Mail, West One Technology, Regenersis, Eazyfone, Mobile Phone Xchange, and ShP.
Alan Campbell said: "I would like to thank those recyclers who are working with us to develop this new code of practice and would urge other companies to join this forum."
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