Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Auror crime intelligence platform in supporting police forces to tackle shoplifting and repeat retail offending.

The Home Office has not undertaken a formal assessment of the effectiveness of the Auror crime intelligence platform. Retail crime reporting platforms are commercial products procured and operated independently of government.

Digital reporting platforms can, however, support retailers and police by improving the sharing of evidence and intelligence, including information that can help identify repeat and organised offenders. We are working with policing and retailers to improve digital retail crime reporting, with a platform-agnostic approach focused on improving evidence quality, reducing duplication and enabling information to be acted on more efficiently.