Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help protect supermarket delivery drivers from (a) threats, (b) abuse and (c) violence.

This Government recognises the dedicated work delivery drivers do, especially when their efforts support the most vulnerable in our society. We are determined to protect them from any form of assault, whether verbal or physical, as part of our wider work to combat retail crime.

We are strengthening neighbourhood policing to better protect our communities and target offenders. As part of the Neighbourhood Policing Grant, the Government has allocated £200 million to forces for 2025-26 to deliver additional personnel into neighbourhood policing. The Home Office is also providing £66.3millon funding in 2025-26 to forces in England and Wales to deliver high visibility patrols in the areas worst affected by knife crime, serious violence and anti-social behaviour.

Where assaults against delivery drivers do occur, they can be prosecuted as an offence (Common Assault) under the Criminal Justice Act 1988. The Offences against the Person Act 1861, also covers assaults, alongside more serious violence, including actual bodily harm and grievous bodily harm.

Section 156 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 created 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 delivering goods to customers. This aggravating factor ensures the courts treat the public-facing nature of a victim’s role as an aggravating factor when considering the sentence for an offence and sends a clear message that violence and abuse towards any worker, including supermarket delivery drivers, will not be tolerated.