Government’s new Crime and Policing Bill aims to tackle retail crime and help communities

The publication of the Crime and Policing Bill, which will set out new measures, including making assaulting a shop worker a stand-alone offence, aimed at empowering the police and tackling shop theft and anti-social behaviour will be cautiously welcomed by the industry following the appalling rise in retail crime in recent years.

In January, the Crime Survey for England and Wales from the Office for National Statistics uncovered that in the 12 months to September 2024, there were 492,914 recorded shoplifting offences, compared to 402,220 in the previous year - an increase of 23%. There were also over 55,000 recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument.

Things have become so bad, that often stores are forced to take their own action. The Association of Convenience Stores’ (ACS) own annual crime survey last year revealed that, taken together, the cost of crime and the investing in fighting it results in a 10p ‘crime tax’ on every transaction that takes place in every store across the UK, up from 6p in the 2023 report.

The newly announced bill, set out in parliament this morning (25 February) will be bolstered by the recruitment of 13,000 additional police officers and follows a similar pattern to the plans of the previous government.

Measures outlined in the new bill include:

• The so-called ‘effective immunity’ for shop theft offences under the value of £200 will be scrapped
• Assaulting a shop worker will become an offence in its own right
• Police will no longer need to apply for a warrant to search a premises where stolen goods have been electronically located
• Increased powers to crack down on repeat antisocial behaviour offenders
• Orders banning prolific offenders from town centres
• Expanding police powers to drug test more suspects on arrest, helping direct more drug users into treatment 
• Creating a new criminal offence of possessing a bladed article with the intent to cause harm

Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper MP, said: “This flagship Crime and Policing Bill is at the heart of our mission for safer streets and this government’s Plan for Change. For too long communities have had to put up with rising town centre and street crime, and persistent antisocial behaviour, while neighbourhood police have been cut.

“For years too little has been done to tackle the most serious violence of all including knife crime and violence against women and children. That’s why the new Crime and Policing Bill is about taking back our streets and town centres, restoring respect for law and order, and giving the police and local communities the support and tools they need to tackle local crime.”

Commenting on the Bill, ACS chief executive James Lowman said: ”We strongly welcome the introduction of the Crime and Policing Bill, which we hope will send a clear message that shop theft and assaults on retailers will be taken seriously by both the police and the justice system. 

”People running and working in shops deserve to be treated with respect, and we believe this bill takes important steps toward that goal.”