Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will take legislative steps through the Sentencing Bill to toughen fines and sentences for people convicted of the assault of retail workers.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Sentencing Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 22 January 2026 and is therefore not open to further amendment. However, the Government is taking additional steps to strengthen protections for retail workers through the Crime and Policing Bill. It is unacceptable that violence and abuse towards retail workers continues to rise. That is why, through the Crime and Policing Bill, we are bringing a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores. This bespoke offence will send a clear signal to perpetrators that assaults on retail workers are unacceptable and won’t go unpunished.
The Crime and Policing Bill also ensures that all shop theft is treated with the seriousness it deserves by repealing section 22A of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980, so low value shop theft (of £200 or less) is no longer treated separately as a summary-only offence, but can instead be prosecuted as general theft, which carries a higher maximum penalty. Together, these measures further reinforce the Government’s commitment to tackling violence, abuse and criminality affecting retail staff.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's White Paper entitled From local to national: a new model for policing, published on 26 January 2026, whether the funding announced for Opal is an yearly increase on past and current funding.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Opal is the National Policing Intelligence Unit for serious organised acquisitive crime. In 2023/4 and 2024/5, the Home Office provided £30,000 each year to help set up and run Pegasus which provides for a retail crime desk within Opal.
The Home Office is providing £5 million over the three financial years from 2025/6 to continue to fund Opal’s work with retailers and police forces to identify and dismantle organised crime groups and prolific offenders.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding has been allocated to Opal in the National Policing Intelligence Unit in each year since 2021.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Opal is the National Policing Intelligence Unit for serious organised acquisitive crime. In 2023/4 and 2024/5, the Home Office provided £30,000 each year to help set up and run Pegasus which provides for a retail crime desk within Opal.
The Home Office is providing £5 million over the three financial years from 2025/6 to continue to fund Opal’s work with retailers and police forces to identify and dismantle organised crime groups and prolific offenders.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken with relevant authorities to help tackle crime in town centres across greater London.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The central aim of our police reforms is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities off local forces, so they focus on tackling local issues, like fighting town centre crime.
Our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee is already making a difference. For too long, people have not seen police patrolling their streets. We will have 3,000 more neighbourhood officers by March this year. The Metropolitan Police Service’s projected growth over 2025 to 2026 will be 420 police officers (FTE) and 50 Police Community Support Officers (FTE). We are giving them the powers they need, including making it a specific offence to assault retail workers and ending the treatment of theft under the value of £200 as a summary-only offence.
We are equipping the police to fight the organised crime gangs that are often responsible for driving shop theft across the country. Our £5m investment into OPAL (a specialist policing unit) will supercharge intelligence-led policing to identify offenders, disrupt the tactics used to target shops, and bring more criminals to justice.
We have also delivered on our manifesto pledge: every police force in England and Wales now has a dedicated lead officer for anti-social behaviour, who will work with communities to develop an action plan to tackle ASB. We are also strengthening the powers to tackle ASB. Our new Respect Orders will give local agencies stronger enforcement capability to tackle the most relentless ASB offenders.
Through our Summer Initiative police forces and local authorities increased patrols in town centres, tackling retail crime and anti-social behaviour as part of the Government’s Plan for Change to make our streets safer. Our Winter of Action, which ran from 1 December 2025 to 31 January 2026, built on this, with an additional focus on repeat offenders and protecting women and girls at night. The full list of locations the Metropolitan Police Service focused on as part of the Winter of Action can be found here: Winter of Action: location list - GOV.UK
Building from the Winter of Action, we are working with forces and local partners to identify and tackle the most prolific retail offenders - where a few individuals can drive a large proportion of the local crime problem.
Together with the police, we are sending a message: crime and anti-social behaviour will be punished.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle anti-social behaviour in Gloucester city centre.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Through the Crime and Policing Bill, we are strengthening the powers available to police and other relevant agencies to tackle ASB, including introducing new Respect Orders to give local agencies stronger enforcement capability to crack down on the most relentless ASB perpetrators.
Under the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, we are putting neighbourhood officers back into communities, both urban and rural, and restoring public confidence by bringing back community-led, visible policing. By the end of this parliament there will be 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales, including up to 3,000 additional neighbourhood officers by the end of March 2026. Gloucestershire Constabulary’s projected growth over 2025 to 2026 will be 23 police officers (FTE).
Gloucestershire Constabulary participated in the Safer Streets Summer Initiative, as part of activity to tackle anti-social behaviour, retail crime and street crime across six town centres. The force is currently participating in the Winter of Action, which builds on this work and covers twelve town centres, including Gloucester City Centre, with activity focused on anti-social behaviour, retail crime, offending linked to the night-time economy, and violence against women and girls. The full list of locations Gloucestershire has been focusing on as part of the Winter of Action can be found here: Winter of Action: location list - GOV.UK
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support police forces in tackling shoplifting and retail crime.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Police recorded crime figures recorded 529,994 shoplifting offences for year ending June 2025. This represents a 13% increase from the previous year.
Charges for shop theft rose by 25% (up to 107,090 charges). That is why we’re committed to restoring visible, responsive neighbourhood policing with 3,000 additional officers in neighbourhood policing roles by spring next year.
In the Crime and Policing Bill, we are bringing a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores and we are 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.
The Home Office has regular discussions with the police and other partners on protecting retail workers and tackling shop theft.
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 – in partnership with the retail sector - to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken with police forces to tackle a) physical and b) verbal abuse against retail workers.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Charges for shop theft rose by 25% (up to 107,090 charges) in the year ending June 2025. As this was a higher rate of increase than the rise in shop thefts recorded (13%), this led to an increase in the charge rate from 17.7% to 19.1%.
This Government is committed to restoring visible, responsive neighbourhood policing with 3,000 additional officers in neighbourhood policing roles by spring this year.
In the Crime and Policing Bill, we are bringing a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores and we are 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.
The Home Office has regular discussions with the police and other partners on protecting retail workers and tackling shop theft.
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 – in partnership with the retail sector - to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken with police forces to tackle shoplifting in a) England and b) Romford constituency.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Charges for shop theft rose by 25% (up to 107,090 charges) in the year ending June 2025. As this was a higher rate of increase than the rise in shop thefts recorded (13%), this led to an increase in the charge rate from 17.7% to 19.1%.
This Government is committed to restoring visible, responsive neighbourhood policing with 3,000 additional officers in neighbourhood policing roles by spring this year.
In the Crime and Policing Bill, we are bringing a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores and we are 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.
The Home Office has regular discussions with the police and other partners on protecting retail workers and tackling shop theft.
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 – in partnership with the retail sector - to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending to county councils the provisions of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 on issuing closure notices in cases of illegal trading of tobacco and vaping products on the high street.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The closure power, under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, enables police or local councils - including county councils where there is no district council - to close premises quickly which are being used to commit nuisance or disorder.
The closure power, along with all the powers in the 2014 Act, is deliberately local in nature, and it is for local agencies to determine whether its use is appropriate and meets the legal test in the specific circumstances.
The global supply of illicit tobacco is significant and the high profit margins continue to attract organised criminal networks. HMRC are fully aware of this threat and take robust, coordinated action in response. Working in close partnership across government, we target production at its source, intercept illicit products at the border and in retail environments, and pursue and prosecute those involved in the illicit tobacco trade.
Stubbing out the problem: A new strategy to tackle illicit tobacco - GOV.UK sets out how HMRC, Border Force and partner agencies tackle illicit tobacco. It seeks to target loopholes at all stages of the supply chain, to keep ahead of the criminals. The strategy:
National Trading Standards plays a key part in tackling illicit tobacco at a local level. It provides both a visible and tangible deterrent that organised criminality and anti-social behaviour surrounding the supply of illicit tobacco will not be tolerated. HMRC values the close working partnership it has with National Trading Standards through Operation CeCe and is committed to building on its success by increasing the level of funding available to Trading Standards. This means that we can have an even greater impact in tackling the illicit tobacco trade, undertaking more visits, creating more disruption, detecting and seizing more illicit product, tackling underage sales and reducing community harm.
HMRC is progressing preparations for the 1 October 2026 introduction of Vaping Products Duty with a strong focus on compliance readiness and illicit market risk.
Asked by: Baroness Stedman-Scott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of high street closures on town centre vitality and local employment, particularly in areas with limited alternative sources of work.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The high street provides a critical source of employment and skills in our economy, accounting for 4.4m jobs in 2018.
No specific data is held on the impact of closures on employment. However, the national rate of persistently vacant high street retail and leisure properties increased to 5.3% in 2023, up from 3.6% in 2018, reflecting factors including long term shifts in consumer behaviour, rising costs, and retail crime.
The Government is acting to reverse this decline with support for high street businesses, such as banning upwards only rent reviews in commercial leases and reforming licensing rules, strengthening powers to tackle retail crime and anti-social behaviour, and empowering councils to auction the lease of persistently vacant premises on our high streets.