A game-changer for retail crime: How a new offence will expose the true scale of violence against shop workers
26 February 2025, 07:41
Earlier this month, The British Retail Consortium released their Annual Crime Survey 2024, which showed some significant increases in the number of retail crimes and incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers.
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It showed that retail violence and abuse increased by over 50% to more than 2,000 incidents a day, which is alarming, but the figures are based entirely on specific feedback to the survey and not on crimes reported to police.
Currently, any assault against a retail worker is recorded under a generic assault crime category, which means it has been impossible to assess the true extent of the problem. Surveys and anecdotal evidence suggest that the issue is prevalent and increasing, but with no accurate crime recording in place, the offence and scale of the problem can’t be fully understood.
As part of The Crime and Policing Bill introduced in Parliament today, a separate offence for assaulting a retail worker will be created. That means that for the first time ever, violence against retail workers will be recorded and counted as an offence in its own right.
But why is that so important? By recording these incidents as a separate offence, police, partners and the retail sector will have a much clearer picture of how many incidents are happening, where they are happening, and better understand the level of police and partner resources needed to tackle the issue.
There is acceptance from policing and the government that the policing response to retail crime is improving, but that more needs to be done.
The Retail Crime Action Plan launched in 2023, and the work of the police-led National Business Centre (NBCC) and others to help implement the plan is starting to make a difference in terms of increased reporting and retailers providing digital evidence to police to aid investigations and bring offenders to justice.
But having this separate offence will undoubtedly focus police and partner attention on an issue that can sometimes get lost among so many other competing priorities.
Baselining the number of incidents of assaults against retail workers will not only provide a more accurate picture of how prevalent the issue is but also help to gauge the effectiveness of the police and partner response to the issue in terms of driving down the number of assaults happening.
Any improvements in intelligence sharing, recording, reporting and evidence capture will undoubtedly support police and partners in tackling shop theft more effectively.
Patrick Holdaway is a Superintendent from the City of London Police and has led the National Business Crime Centre (NBCC) since December 2018.
Find out more about the work of the NBCC on the retail crime: NBCC National Business Crime Centre
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