Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce shoplifting in Essex.

Shop theft rose to record levels under the previous government , with shopworkers facing unacceptable violence and abuse in the process. We will not stand for this. Everybody has a right to feel safe on the job.

This Government will end the effective impunity, introduced by the previous Government, granted to shop theft of goods under £200 and we will also introduce a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.