Shops like mine spend billions on retail crime - new laws must deliver, writes Theo Paphitis
Legislation can’t do the job on its own, and actions speak louder than words
At last, after years of pressure from the retail sector, the Crime and Policing Act received Royal Assent and became law.
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It marks a genuine shift in how retail crime is recognised - something shopkeepers and industry bodies have long been crying out for.
No one should go to work fearing abuse, violence or theft. Yet for far too many people on our high streets, that has quietly become part of the job. We shouldn’t have to live in a world where that’s ok.
Across my own businesses - Ryman, Robert Dyas, Boux Avenue and London Graphic Centre - I hear it firsthand.
Colleagues turning up every morning, doing their jobs, and dealing with behaviour that simply would not be tolerated anywhere else. Work shouldn’t add extra stress to our colleagues’ lives.
This Act shows Labour has listened. But listening is just the start.
More still needs to be done to properly protect the people who are in our communities representing our businesses day in, day out.
Latest figures from the British Retail Consortium show over 1,600 incidents of violence or abuse against retail workers every single day - the second highest on record. Within that, 118 involve physical violence and 36 involve a weapon.
Shopkeepers have not stood still. Over the past five years, we’ve collectively spent around £5 billion on security - CCTV, guards, body-worn cameras, store redesigns and staff training. A necessary investment, but also a costly one that is appreciated by our store colleagues
That is £5 billion that could have gone into wages, stores or keeping prices down for customers. Instead, it has gone on managing a problem that should never have reached this scale.
The Crime and Policing Act gets the fundamentals right. A standalone offence for assaulting a shopworker sends a clear signal these crimes are serious.
Why some muppet thought it was a good idea, in the first place, to give thieves a free pass for stealing anything under £200 as many times as they want without prosecution is beyond me. Scrapping the £200 threshold, which effectively gave so-called low-level theft a green light, was clearly overdue.
The challenge now is how to make these changes count.
Legislation can’t do the job on its own, and as ever, actions speak louder than words. The BRC reports 13 per cent of retailers now rate police response as good or excellent, up from 9 per cent - progress, but still not where it needs to be.
That means officers responding when incidents are reported, repeat offenders being pursued, and courts using the powers available rather than letting cases fall away.
Retail crime has been treated as low priority for too long. This Act confirms it should not be. Now, policing and the courts need to say the same.
There is a clear willingness across the sector to work alongside government and law enforcement to tackle this properly. It’s been on retailers’ to-do list for far too long.
Now it is time to deliver - for colleagues on the shop floor, for the customers they serve, and for high streets that communities can feel proud of again.
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Theo Paphitis is the Chairman and Owner of Ryman, Robert Dyas, Boux Avenue and London Graphic Centre and employs around 3,500 people in retail.
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