Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Policing Productivity review on levels of theft from shops.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the impact shoplifting has on businesses and communities. The Crime Survey for England and Wales shows neighbourhood crime is down 48% compared to findings from 2010; however, Police Recorded Crime figures show shoplifting offences increased by 32% in the 12 months to September 2023. Statistics also show the number of people charged with shoplifting has risen by 34%, showing the police are acting.
We have recently taken significant steps to improve the police response to retail crime, including shoplifting. In October 2023, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) published the Retail Crime Action Plan. All forces across England and Wales have committed to prioritise police attendance at the scene where violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by store security, and where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police personnel. Additionally, where CCTV or other digital images are secured, police will run this through the Police National Database to aid efforts to identify offenders. This builds on the NPCC commitment that police will follow up on all reasonable lines of enquiry.
The Government published an enhanced Action Plan, "Fighting Retail Crime: More action" on 10 April. This Plan highlights key areas of work to tackle retail crime, including introduction of a new standalone office for assaults on retail workers; additional electronic monitoring for prolific shoplifters; and increasing use of facial recognition technology.
The Policing Productivity Review was published on 20 November 2023, which concludes there is the potential to free up around 38 million hours of police time per year within five years. This equates to over 20,000 police officers. The Government is working with policing to consider its recommendations, freeing up police officers’ time which can be reprioritised to enable officers to spend more time fighting crime on the front line, in line with local priorities set by Police and Crime Commissioners. This additional police time could be used to support delivery of the Retail Crime Action Plan. Evaluation on the impact of the Policing Productivity Review will be part of the remit of the new Centre for Police Productivity which was announced at the Spring Budget 2024.
We are continuing to work closely with the retail sector, security representatives, trade associations and policing through the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG), which meets on a quarterly basis, to ensure the response to retail crime, including shoplifting, is as robust as it can be.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department made an assessment of the potential merits of including measures to tackle shoplifting in the Criminal Justice Bill.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is clear that violent and abusive behaviour towards any public-facing worker is never acceptable. We take this issue very seriously and recognise the implications on businesses as well as the victims.
The Government took a significant step and legislated to introduce a statutory aggravating factor for assault against any public facing worker via section 156 of the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. This ensures the public facing nature of a victim’s role will be considered an aggravating factor when it comes to sentencing for assault offences.
We keep all legislation under review. Under section 176 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, the shoplifting of goods of a value of £200 or less is a summary offence unless the defendant, if an adult, elects to be tried in the Crown Court. Where a summary offence is committed, the case can be handled as a police-led prosecution. There is a misconception this is used as a threshold by police forces, so that if the value of goods stolen is under £200, police will not respond. No police force has such a policy and this summary offence for shoplifting does not prevent police taking action against shoplifters.
The Government has recently made significant steps to improve the police response to retail crime. In October, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) published the Retail Crime Action Plan. Through this Plan, all police forces in England and Wales have committed to prioritise police attendance at the scene where violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by store security, and where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police personnel. Additionally, where CCTV or other digital images are secured, police will run this through the Police National Database to further aid efforts to identify prolific offenders or potentially dangerous individuals. This builds on the commitment made by the NPCC in August 2023 that all police forces across England and Wales will follow up all crimes where there is actionable evidence and the chance of identifying an offender, including shoplifting.
Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) are a valued part of the police workforce, as a key liaison point to help resolve local issues and foster good community relations.
Decisions around recruitment and retention of PCSOs and the powers and duties they have are for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will undertake a review of the adequacy of the legislation relating to bystanders and shoplifting.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is clear that violent and abusive behaviour towards any public-facing worker is never acceptable. We take this issue very seriously and recognise the implications on businesses as well as the victims.
We keep all legislation under review. This Government has recently made significant steps to improve the police response to retail crime, including shoplifting.
In October, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) published the Retail Crime Action Plan. Through this Plan, all police forces in England and Wales have committed to prioritise police attendance at the scene where violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by store security, and where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police personnel. Additionally, where CCTV or other digital images are secured, police will run this through the Police National Database to further aid efforts to identify prolific offenders or potentially dangerous individuals. There are no plans to review PACE legislation which makes it legal (as it has been for many decades) for a member of the public to perform a citizens arrest in certain circumstances.
This builds on the commitment made by the NPCC in August 2023 that all police forces across England and Wales will follow up all crimes where there is actionable evidence and the chance of identifying an offender, including shoplifting.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of theft from a shop of goods with a value of £200 or less being a summary-only offence on detection rates for low value shop theft.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is clear that violent and abusive behaviour towards any public-facing worker is never acceptable. We take this issue very seriously and recognise the implications on businesses as well as the victims.
The Government took a significant step and legislated to introduce a statutory aggravating factor for assault against any public facing worker via section 156 of the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. This ensures the public facing nature of a victim’s role will be considered an aggravating factor when it comes to sentencing for assault offences.
We keep all legislation under review. Under section 176 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, the shoplifting of goods of a value of £200 or less is a summary offence unless the defendant, if an adult, elects to be tried in the Crown Court. Where a summary offence is committed, the case can be handled as a police-led prosecution. There is a misconception this is used as a threshold by police forces, so that if the value of goods stolen is under £200, police will not respond. No police force has such a policy and this summary offence for shoplifting does not prevent police taking action against shoplifters.
The Government has recently made significant steps to improve the police response to retail crime. In October, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) published the Retail Crime Action Plan. Through this Plan, all police forces in England and Wales have committed to prioritise police attendance at the scene where violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by store security, and where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police personnel. Additionally, where CCTV or other digital images are secured, police will run this through the Police National Database to further aid efforts to identify prolific offenders or potentially dangerous individuals. This builds on the commitment made by the NPCC in August 2023 that all police forces across England and Wales will follow up all crimes where there is actionable evidence and the chance of identifying an offender, including shoplifting.
Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) are a valued part of the police workforce, as a key liaison point to help resolve local issues and foster good community relations.
Decisions around recruitment and retention of PCSOs and the powers and duties they have are for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 December 2023 to Question 6491 on Shoplifting, whether HM Passport Office data has been used to help identify suspects of shoplifting.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the significant impact shoplifting has on businesses, communities and consumers.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales shows neighbourhood crime is down 51% compared to findings from the year ending March 2010; however, Police Recorded Crime figures show shoplifting offences increased by 25% in the 12 months to June 2023. Statistics also show the number of people charged with shoplifting offences has risen by 29% in the year ending June 2023. That’s a welcome indication that the police are heeding the message and are giving greater attention to shoplifting. The Home Office does not hold specific information relating to shoplifting offences attended by the police.
Over recent months I have worked with representatives of the retail sector and senior police leaders, including the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) leads for Acquisitive Crime, Retail Crime, Business Crime and the National Business Crime Centre, to improve the police response to
shoplifting. These conversations resulted in the development of the NPCC’s Retail Crime Action Plan.
In October, the NPCC published the Retail Crime Action Plan. Through this Plan, all police forces in England and Wales have committed to prioritise police attendance at the scene where violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by store security, and where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police personnel.
Additionally, where CCTV or other digital images are secured, police will run this through the Police National Database to further aid efforts to identify prolific offenders or potentially dangerous individuals. Police forces use the facial matching facility on the Police National Database which contains images of people previously arrested. The UK passport database is searched on a limited basis in support of the most serious law enforcement investigations.
The plan also includes guidance for retailers on what response they can expect from their local police, as well as how retailers can assist the police by providing evidence to help ensure cases are followed-up. Retailers can assist police by providing CCTV footage and images, which is best shared electronically via a Digital Evidence Management System.
The Home Office does not hold data on police attendance at retail crime incidents. The NPCC is exploring how this data could be captured by police forces to show attendance in line with the commitments in the Retail Crime Action Plan.
The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests made by police in England and Wales, as part of the annual ‘Police Powers and Procedures: Stop and search and arrests’ statistical release. The Home Office does not hold information relating to citizens arrests.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle (a) violence and abuse against shopworkers and (b) shoplifting.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the significant impact shoplifting has on businesses, communities, and consumers. The Crime Survey for England and Wales shows neighbourhood crime is down 51% compared to findings from the year ending March 2010.
However, Police Recorded Crime figures show shoplifting offences increased by 32% in the 12 months to September 2023. Statistics also show the number of people charged with shoplifting offences has risen by 34% in the year ending September 2023, showing that police are taking action.
The Government is clear that violent and abusive behaviour towards any worker, particularly those who provide a valuable service to the public, is never acceptable. We have recently made significant steps to improve the police response to retail crime, including shoplifting and violence and abuse against retail workers.
In October 2023, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) published the Retail Crime Action Plan. Through this Plan, all forces across England and Wales have committed to prioritise police attendance at the scene where violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by store security, and where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police personnel. Additionally, where CCTV or other digital images are secured, police will run this through the Police National Database to aid efforts to identify prolific offenders or potentially dangerous individuals.
This builds on the NPCC commitment that police forces across England and Wales will follow up all crimes where there is actionable evidence and the chance of identifying an offender, including shoplifting.
October also saw the launch of Pegasus, a unique private-public partnership, which involves retailers providing data, intelligence and evidence to Opal, the national police intelligence unit on organised acquisitive crime, to develop a better strategic picture and help forces crack down on serious offenders.
In 2022, we took the significant step to introduce a statutory aggravating factor for assault against those who are serving the public. Section 156 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 means the public facing nature of a victim’s role will be considered an aggravating factor when it comes to sentencing for assault offences, allowing the court to give a longer sentence within the statutory maximum for the offence.
We are continuing to work closely with retail businesses, security representatives, trade associations and policing through the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG) to ensure the response to retail crime, including shoplifting, is as robust as it can be.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of trends in the number of police community support officers on shoplifting charge rates in the last 10 years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is clear that violent and abusive behaviour towards any public-facing worker is never acceptable. We take this issue very seriously and recognise the implications on businesses as well as the victims.
The Government took a significant step and legislated to introduce a statutory aggravating factor for assault against any public facing worker via section 156 of the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. This ensures the public facing nature of a victim’s role will be considered an aggravating factor when it comes to sentencing for assault offences.
We keep all legislation under review. Under section 176 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, the shoplifting of goods of a value of £200 or less is a summary offence unless the defendant, if an adult, elects to be tried in the Crown Court. Where a summary offence is committed, the case can be handled as a police-led prosecution. There is a misconception this is used as a threshold by police forces, so that if the value of goods stolen is under £200, police will not respond. No police force has such a policy and this summary offence for shoplifting does not prevent police taking action against shoplifters.
The Government has recently made significant steps to improve the police response to retail crime. In October, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) published the Retail Crime Action Plan. Through this Plan, all police forces in England and Wales have committed to prioritise police attendance at the scene where violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by store security, and where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police personnel. Additionally, where CCTV or other digital images are secured, police will run this through the Police National Database to further aid efforts to identify prolific offenders or potentially dangerous individuals. This builds on the commitment made by the NPCC in August 2023 that all police forces across England and Wales will follow up all crimes where there is actionable evidence and the chance of identifying an offender, including shoplifting.
Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) are a valued part of the police workforce, as a key liaison point to help resolve local issues and foster good community relations.
Decisions around recruitment and retention of PCSOs and the powers and duties they have are for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people served prison sentences for shoplifting in each year since 2010.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Data on the number of prisoners serving sentences for burglary offences are routinely published within the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publication. Please see annual Tables A1.5i (Row 64; for data for 2015 onwards) and A1.5ii (Row 18; for data covering 2010 - 2014).
Data on the number of prisoners serving sentences for shoplifting offences (for 2015 onwards) are routinely published in Row 76 of Table A1.5i. The offence categories used in the underlying prison population datasets before 2015 did not include shoplifting as a specific offence (i.e. it was included in a broader ‘Other Theft’ category). As such data for the number of prisoners serving sentences for shoplifting from 2010 – 2014 could only be obtained at disproportionate cost to the department as we would need to conduct a manual search of prisoner records for those with an ‘Other Theft’ offence to establish the number with mentions of ‘Shoplifting’ in the court summary.
Tables A1.5i and A1.5ii can be found at the following link:
Increase penalties for shoplifting and abusing retail workers
- Final Signatures: 199
We think that the penalties for people caught shoplifting and abusing retail workers should be increased. This should better protect retail workers, who are key workers in our society.
Found: Increase penalties for shoplifting and abusing retail workers
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2024 to Question 14123 on Shoplifting: Reoffenders, what the proven re-offending rate was for an index offence of shop lifting (theft from shops) for the (a) January to March 2021 and (b) January to March 2020 cohort.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The proven reoffending rate for offenders with an index offence of shop lifting (theft from shops), who served a custodial sentence for this offence, for the (a) January – March 2021 cohort was 81.8% and (b) January – March 2020 cohort was 78.3%.
The proven reoffending rate for offenders with an index offence of robbery, who served a custodial sentence for this offence, for the (a) January – March 2021 cohort was 23.8% and (b) January – March 2020 cohort was 27.8%.
The overall proven reoffending rate for (a) January – March 2021 was 24.3% and (b) January – March 2020 was 24.7%. Reoffending rates in recent cohorts have been affected to varying degrees by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This Government is committed to reducing reoffending, and reoffending rates have fallen from 31.3% in 2011/12 to 25.2% in 2021/22. We are investing in rehabilitation to stop prison leavers falling back into crime – including tackling drug addiction, increasing the number of offenders in work, and providing basic, short-term accommodation on release. Further, in October last year, the Lord Chancellor announced his intention to legislate for a presumption to suspend short custodial sentences of 12 months or less. The offender would then serve their sentence in the community and courts will retain discretion to impose a sentence of immediate custody where necessary. Our latest quarterly statistics, January – March 2022, suggest that 55.5% of people given a custodial sentence of less than 12 months reoffend within one year. For offenders punished with Suspended Sentence Orders with requirements that are served in the community, the reoffending rate is significantly lower at 24.2%.
On top of this, we are doubling the number of GPS tags available to courts for sentencing, ensuring more burglars and robbers are tagged which ultimately keeps our communities safer.