The law already exists to tackle shoplifting, police must start using it

Whilst it is encouraging to have read that the number of incidents of violence and abuse against shop workers fell from 2,000 per day for the period 01.09.23 – 31.08.24 to 1,600 per day during the period 01.09.24 – 31.08.25 and with the number of retailers rating the police response as good or excellent up by 4% from the previous year, the fact that the 5.5 million of recorded retail theft nationally is sadly an under representation of the actual number of incidents is hugely concerning.

As Helen Dickinson, BRC’s Chief Executive, said yesterday “Theft remains a huge issue with an increasingly concerning link to organised criminal gangs who continue to systematically target one store after another stealing tens of thousands of pounds of goods in one go”.

The Government’s promise – announced in its policing White Paper - to inject £7m into supporting an increase in the response to retail crime, whilst welcome, is just a drop in the ocean when spread over the next three years.

The levels of retail crime taking place in south London today are sadly as prevalent, if not more prevalent, in many shops than they were in November and December.

Recent catch-ups with supermarkets and shops that I have undertaken in the Clapham Town area in particular, close by Clapham Common tube station, evidence that shoplifting is getting worse and not better than three months earlier. 

The fact that shoplifters are seen to be getting away scot-free with theft is no doubt leading to copy-cat tactics and this situation cannot be allowed to persist.

Whilst our national chains of supermarkets can just about sustain the losses incurred for shoplifting, there is not a bottomless pit of monies available to small retailers, be they either independents or parts of local or national chains, to absorb these losses.

Shop theft is estimated to cost London’s retailers the staggering amount of just over £17 million per month.

The employment of security guards is a significant extra burden of cost to companies and if individual guards have received specific instructions from their employers not to take enforcement action, for their own protection, then one has to question as to whether or not their presence in and of itself acts as a sufficient deterrent to shoplifters.

Many in the Labour government cite one of the key reasons for introducing their upcoming Crime & Policing Bill in the spring as being to toughen up legislation when it comes to stolen goods with a value of under £200.

The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, would have had us believe in her interview on Nick Ferrari’s breakfast programme on LBC on 27th January that the Conservative and Lib Dem Coalition government’s 2014 ASB, Crime & Policing Act effectively served to de-criminalise the theft of goods of under £200. 

Far be it from effectively de-criminalising such “low value shoplifting”, the purpose of reclassifying such shoplifting offences as low-value at that point was specifically brought about so as to ensure that the police would have the powers to fast-track prosecution of such offenders through the Magistrates Courts rather than the Criminal Courts.

With Magistrates Courts having the powers to impose custodial sentences of up to 6 months, in the event of magistrates perceiving the need for longer sentences then there is every opportunity for them to pass on such cases for trial in the Criminal Courts.

I for one am fed up with members of the Labour Party from the Home Secretary downwards effectively misleading the public by peddling the myth that there is insufficient legislation in place for enforcing “low-value shoplifting” and incorrectly blaming the 2014 legislation.

There is no need for changes to be made to that piece of legislation. There is, however, an urgent need for the Mayor of London – in his capacity as London’s Police and Crime Commissioner - to hold the Metropolitan Police to account for their currently very low level of clear-up rate of all shoplifting crime and instead to fast-track low-value shoplifting offences through the Magistrates Courts under the existing 2014 legislation.

For as long as the Met Police’s percentage level of shoplifting offences recorded and resulting in charges being made remaining as low as it currently is at 5.9% of the 93,705 offences recorded for 2024/25, in comparison for example with the percentage figure for Greater Manchester standing at a much more impressive 23.2% of their 22,035 shoplifting offences, then Sadiq Khan needs to be asking tough questions of the Met Police as to why such a very large differential currently exists.

There are some positive signs. It is good to hear that our local police here in south London are starting to make inroads in the arrest of some prolific shoplifting offenders and that increasing use of Live Facial Recognition is assisting in that regard.  What is concerning, however, is that the epidemic of shoplifting offences as a whole does not seem to be reducing in any significant way.

Until such time as more police are recruited in London to stem the tide of departures seen over recent years, however, we are reliant upon senior officers across our 32 boroughs continuing to act smart in regular redeployment of a certain proportion of their existing neighbourhood police officer and PCSO teams around wards experiencing the highest levels of crime.

____________

Neil Salt is the Constituency Officer for Streatham and Croydon North, Lambeth & Southwark Conservative Federation and a Conservative Candidate for Clapham Town ward in Lambeth local elections, May 2026

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

To contact us email opinion@lbc.co.uk