Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how her Department plans to allocate the funding to tackle shoplifting announced in the Autumn Budget 2024.

Shop theft is at a record high. This Government is taking strong action by removing the threshold for shop theft under £200 and making it a specific criminal offence for assaults on shopworkers.

As announced in the Autumn Budget, and building on current Home Office funding, we will provide the following additional funding to help tackle retail crime:

• £5 million over three years to continue to fund a specialist analysis team within Opal, the National Policing Intelligence Unit for serious organised acquisitive crime, to crack down on organised gangs targeting retailers;
• £2 million over three years to the National Business Crime Centre, a resource for police and businesses to learn, share and support each other to prevent and combat crime; and

£100k in 2025-26 for the National Police Chiefs' Council for further training on prevention tactics.