Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to protect shopworkers from violence and abuse by customers in their place of work.

The Government is clear that violence and abuse towards any worker is not acceptable.

Last year we introduced a statutory aggravating factor for assault against any public facing workers via section 156 of the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. This applies in cases of assault where an offence is committed against those performing a public duty or providing a service to the public. This legislative change ensures the courts treat the public-facing nature of a victim’s role as an aggravating factor when considering the sentence for an offence.

The Home Office continues to work closely with retailers, trade associations and the police through the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG) to encourage retailers to work with police so that crimes are effectively dealt with at a local level. The NRCSG has produced practical resources to assist retailers to report crimes when they occur. These are available here.

The Home Office-funded #ShopKind campaign is also key to getting the message across that violence and abuse towards retail workers across the country will not be tolerated. The campaign asks the public to consider their behaviour and shop with kindness.

Police recorded offences in England and Wales (excluding Devon and Cornwall) for shoplifting and all theft offences for year ending December 2022 are showing a fall of 12% and 13% respectively compared with the pre-pandemic period of March 2020.

Volumes data for shoplifting from police recorded crime (PRC) data should be interpreted with caution due to under reporting of shoplifting. Therefore, the volumes presented here are likely to underestimate the true level of shoplifting.

Across England and Wales we now have the highest number of police officers on record with over 149,500 officers.

As a result of the unprecedented police recruitment drive we have recruited over 20,000 additional officers. That means that there are now over 3,500 more officers in England and Wales than the previous peak in 2010.