Retail Crime Crackdown Announced

The Government yesterday published a Policy Paper called ‘Fighting retail crime: more action’, available here: Fighting retail crime: more action (accessible) – GOV.UK (http://www.gov.uk/)  aimed at building on the commitments set out in the Retail Crime Action Plan published in October 2023.

Key points from the paper are:

• The paper states the need to send “…the clear and unequivocal message that violence or abuse against shopworkers will never be tolerated. Just as importantly, we must create an environment that gives these [retail] businesses every possible opportunity to prosper… We must adopt a zero-tolerance approach to retail crime.”
• Data / context:
  • Shoplifting offences have been increasing, with the latest police recorded crime data (for the year to September 2023) showing an increase of 32% compared to the previous year and up by 12% since the pre-pandemic period. The latest British Retail Consortium (BRC) survey from a sample of retailers, estimates the number of shoplifting incidents are in the millions, and estimates the overall cost of retail crime (including crime prevention measures) was £3.3bn-almost double the previous year.
  • Another area of concern is the rise in violence towards retail workers. Encountering a thief in store is the most common trigger for violent crime incidents in retail stores (cited by 26% of victims of violence, CVS 2021). Estimates show that 10% of premises in the sector experienced at least one incident of assault or threat, and that the majority of such incidents are verbal threats rather than physical assaults (CVS, 2022).  The British Retail Consortium Crime Report 2024 showed there were around 475,000 incidents of violence and abuse in 2022-23 or 1,300 incidents a day; an increase from 870 a day in 2022-23. The majority of these incidents were abuse; but 41,000 of them were classed as violent incidents by those responding to the survey.
  • There has also been a rise in police recorded Robbery of Business property, with a 34% increase (for year to September 2023).
  • Evidence from the Commercial Victimisation Survey suggests the most common reason for not reporting a crime incident to the police in the Wholesale and retail sector was because the crime incident was deemed to be too trivial (37%). However, the proportion of premises reporting customer theft to the police is more likely when high value goods are stolen (64%), or there is violence towards staff (26%).  When crimes are reported to the police, the majority of cases are closed without the offender being identified, with only 14.5% of recorded shoplifting offences resulting in a charge/summoned outcome, although this is higher than the overall charge rate for crime (5.9%, excluding fraud and computer misuse) in the year ending September 2023.  CVS estimates from 2021 indicate that, of the Wholesale and Retail premises that had reported any form of crime to the police, 53% were dissatisfied with the police response.
  • Shoplifting is a common offence in the criminal careers of prolific offenders. Shoplifting offences alone made up 14% of all sentencing occasions for prolific offenders.  Evidence suggests drugs is an important driver of prolific offending, with an estimated 70% of shop theft being committed by frequent users of heroin or crack cocaine/cocaine powder.
  • Prolific offenders account for a disproportionate amount of crime: 9% of the offending cohort (around 525,000 individuals) received 52% of convictions between 2000 and 2021.