Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle shoplifting.

Shop theft continues to increase at an unacceptable level. We will not stand for this.

Our approach is clear – we want to see more officers on the streets and those officers to be armed with new powers.

That is why we’re giving officers the powers they need through this government’s Crime and Policing Bill, which is introducing a new specific offence of assaulting a retail worker and ending the effective immunity that currently applies for theft of goods of and under £200. We want to remove the perception that those committing shop theft will escape punishment by ensuring there are visible and meaningful consequences for those caught breaking the law.

We are also providing over £7 million over the next three years to support the police and retailers tackle retail crime, including continuing to fund a specialist policing team to disrupt organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.

We are committed to harnessing the collective power of Government, law enforcement and businesses to bear down on retail crime. That is why we are backing the Tackling Retail Crime Together strategy, jointly developed by the police and the private sector. This collaborative approach brings together industry knowledge and experience with policing powers, fostering the local and national partnerships that will make a real difference in local areas.

But we want to go further and faster, which is why the Home Secretary recently declared a “Winter of Action”, building on the success of our Safer Streets Summer campaign to tackle town centre crime including shop theft and anti-social behaviour.