Police must be handed new powers to search and shut down rogue scrap dealers blamed for an explosion in metal thefts from railways, MPs demanded today.

A report by the Commons Transport Select Committee condemn ‘Steptoe and Son’ laws dating back to 1964 as badly outdated, leaving British Transport Police unable to crack down hard on dealers who sell on stolen signalling cable.

Written evidence submitted to the committee by Metro show incidents rose across West Yorkshire by more than half from 106 in 2009/10 to 161 in 2010/11. Figures for 2011/12 show 97 incidents in the first three-quarters of the year.

From April last year it has meant 144 cancellations resulting in 34,971 minute of delays and forced rail chiefs to pay out £934,632 to train and freight operators for “disruption caused by delay”.

Metro fears the situation will not improve in the near future.

Its evidence said: “Despite the fluctuations in the world price of copper, conservative estimates suggest that the price of copper will continue to rise for the remainder of 2011 and consequently a significant change in criminal activity is not envisaged whilst the price incentive exists.”

Police are unable to revoke registrations, enter unregistered sites, or search premises without a court warrant, the report by the all-party Commons transport warns.

Ministers are already poised to ban scrap dealers from making cash payments to try to curb the trade in stolen metal despite fears that thieves will turn to unlicensed yards instead.

Committee Chairman Louise Ellman said: “The Government needs to go much further than that, by giving the police real powers to act. Cable theft on the railway must be tackled with more urgency.”