Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of trends in the level of retail crime in the West Midlands; and what steps her Department is taking to support local police forces to help tackle (a) persistent and (b) organised shop theft.

Shop theft continues to increase at an unacceptable level. There were 33,363 shoplifting offences recorded by West Midlands police in the year ending June 2025, a 28% increase on the previous year. Nationally shop theft increased by 13% on the previous year.

We are ensuring the right powers are in place. Through the Crime and Policing Bill, we are bringing in a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores. We are also removing the legislation which makes shop theft of and below £200 a summary-only offence, sending a clear message that any level of shop theft is illegal and will be taken seriously.

Additionally, we are 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 better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.

Tackling retail crime requires a partnership approach between policing representatives and business. The previous Minister for Crime and Policing launched the ‘Tackling Retail Crime Together Strategy’, which was jointly developed by the police and industry and aims to provide a collaborative and evidence-based approach to preventing retail crime, including organised shop theft.

The Police Funding Settlement of £200 million will support the first steps of delivering 13,000 more neighbourhood personnel.