‘Everyone should sign the petition calling on government to fight retail crime’

My inbox sometimes feels like a measure of what’s on the minds of retailers. Lots of incoming messages on a particular issue reminds me of covid times. But the mass of emails I am currently receiving describe a different sort of epidemic to the one in 2020. It’s about the skyrocketing crime levels now bearing down on retail.

Most of us will have seen that violence, abuse and theft are all significantly up on their pre-Covid levels. And it continues to rise further and further. A recent survey by USDAW found that the 12 months to June had seen a 25% increase in shoplifting as compared to the previous year.

Thieves are becoming bolder and more aggressive, contributing to a torrent of violence and abuse. The BRC’s own Crime Survey shows there were over 850 incidents of violence or abuse every single day against our hardworking retail colleagues. This is nearly double the number prior to the pandemic.

“Shoplifting cost retailers over £950m last year, not to mention a further £715m spent on crime prevention measures”

We owe our retail colleagues more. These are the people who ensured we got the goods we needed and wanted during the pandemic. The people who still serve the needs of all of us, every single day. Whether that be in a shop, on the phone or with a delivery. The people who are subject to racist and sexist slurs, threats, violence.

Teenagers taking on their first job, carers looking for part-time work, parents working around childcare. While the violence can be over in a moment, the victims carry these experiences with them for a lifetime. And we all know the impact does not stop there – it affects their colleagues, friends, and the family our colleagues go home to.

The Retail Trust reports half of retailers are now seeing a rise in absences due to mental health issues, with the high cost-of-living and a surge in abuse and retail crime contributing to deteriorating wellbeing across the industry.

Retail theft affects us in other ways too. Shoplifting cost retailers over £950m last year, not to mention a further £715m spent on crime prevention measures – from security staff to CCTV. The total £1.7bn cost of such crimes is money that could be better spent cutting prices, investing in stores, improving service.

Clear solutions

And what of the police response? For one major retailer, the police’s own data showed that they failed to respond to 73% of serious retail crimes reported. Prosecution rates are even more abysmal with only 7% of incidents of violence and abuse resulting in prosecution. For shoplifting, the figure is even smaller. Retailers are lucky if the police turn up at all to write a report – it is no wonder that reporting is down.

It is clear what is needed. Over 90 retail chief executives signed the BRC letter calling on the home secretary to create a new statutory offence of assaulting, threatening or abusing a retail worker.

That would act as a deterrent and provide a clear message that the government will not tolerate this behaviour. It would also require police forces to record all incidents of retail crime, allowing for better allocation of resources to the issue. The letter also called for greater prioritisation of retail crime by police forces.

“We should not have to wait until the next election to tackle the scourge of retail crime”

We’ve been in regular contact with both Conservative and Labour MPs on this issue. Yesterday the Government announced greater prioritisation of retail crime by local police, and, I was heartened to hear the shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, while at Labour Conference, pledging to introduce a new law to protect retail workers from violence and abuse, as well as pledging to crackdown on shoplifting.

The calls are getting louder all the time. I urge everyone to sign the Parliamentary Petition, set up by a Tesco colleague, calling on Government “to make violence or abuse against retail workers a standalone criminal offence”. This petition is already at 18,000 signatures – but with three million people working in retail – not to mention their friends and family – we must be able to reach the 100,000 names necessary to force a parliamentary debate.

We should not have to wait until the next election to tackle the scourge of retail crime – surely, this is something that all political parties can work together to get behind.