‘Crime and policing bill is milestone in efforts to create safer retail environment’

News from the BRC in January that there were 2,000 incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers every day last year will sadly come as no surprise to many in our industry.

While deeply shocking, it only confirms what many shopworkers have been saying for several years. Intimidation and violence are now a daily reality of life for too many people working on the shop floor.

This week, the long-awaited offence of assaulting a retail worker was finally put before parliament as part of the government’s crime and policing bill. Under the new law, perpetrators are set to face a prison sentence of up to six months, an unlimited fine and a ban from the shop where the crime was committed. The bill will also introduce harsher penalties for shoplifting items under £200 alongside a range of other crime-preventative measures.

This new offence is something that we at the Retail Trust, along with many others, including the BRC, have been saying is needed long before it was first proposed by the previous government in 2024.

Our hope is this new offence can lead to much-needed shifts in how incidents are handled by the police and how shop workers are treated by members of the public

Every day we see the impact the current levels of abuse and violence are having on the wellbeing of the country’s retail workers, through our work with retailers up and down the country as well as the thousands of calls coming through to our helpline. People tell us they have been shouted at and spat on. Some have had products smashed in front of them, others have been hit around the head with metal shopping baskets.

Our latest research found as many as one in three shopworkers currently experience these kinds of physical or verbal assaults every week. Around two-thirds now feel stressed and anxious going into work as a result, and nearly half feel unsafe while they are there, creating a sense of lawlessness in our shops and on our high streets that we cannot allow to continue.

Our hope is this new offence can lead to much-needed shifts in how incidents are handled by the police and how shop workers are treated by members of the public. It certainly sends a stronger message than ever that this behaviour is completely unacceptable.

Staff need to have access to the right systems to be able to record and report incidents

However, it will take more than a change in the law to ensure those on the frontline of this issue feel safer and more supported. Firstly, the police will have to be properly resourced to arrest and prosecute the criminals responsible for this criminal behaviour. The government has previously promised to provide them with more training to better tackle this issue and we think this is going to be key. As will be ensuring that retailers have the right systems in place to record and report incidents.

But a quarter of the people we’ve spoken to admit they don’t report abusive customers to their employers. Likewise, half said they don’t get enough support from their employer to deal with the current levels of violence, threats and abuse. Among those who felt unsupported, the number of people who said they also feel unsafe at work rose to as high as three-quarters.

I know retailers are taking the threat to their staff’s physical safety extremely seriously and it is equally important they now focus on the terrible impact this is having on their people’s mental wellbeing. Staff need to have access to the right systems to be able to record and report incidents, as well as training for handling difficult situations and managing their experiences and, above all, a culture where they feel their concerns will always be heard and acted upon.

The new crime and policing bill is a milestone in the industry’s efforts to create a safer environment for the country’s 3 million shop workers. On its own, it won’t bring an end to the number of violent and abusive incidents. But I hope it marks a new beginning in how the government, the police, retailers and the general public work together to face up to this issue.