Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a standalone offense of assaulting a retail worker that includes (a) bank and (b) building society workers.

Section 156 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 creates a statutory aggravating factor in sentencing cases of assault against public facing workers. It applies where an assault is committed against those providing a public service, performing a public duty or providing a service to the public, including public-facing roles in banks and building societies.

Through our Crime and Policing Bill, this Government has also introduced a specific standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker to help tackle the epidemic of shop theft and violence towards shop workers that we have seen in recent years, and protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.