Retail Crime: Effects

Lord Tope Excerpts

Thursday 5th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Tope (LD)]

My Lords, I hope that does not come off my time. I begin by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Hannett, for introducing this important and timely debate. I declare my interest as a member of the Justice and Home Affairs Committee, chaired by my noble friend Lord Foster of Bath, who is very sorry that he cannot be here tonight. I am not in any way his substitute, as he will be pleased to know I have made clear.

Immediately after the general election, the committee conducted a short inquiry into what was initially termed “shoplifting”. In November, the committee wrote to the Minister for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention with our conclusions and some recommendations. The Minister’s reply to the committee was received last week.

This debate is not specifically about the committee’s report and I do not speak on behalf of the committee in it. I shall leave the Minister to give the Government’s response as he sees fit when he responds to this debate. However, my comments today inevitably are based largely on what I learned during that inquiry, to which reference has so far been made by both previous speakers. I will try not to repeat too much of what they have already said.

The first point that particularly hit us in the inquiry was after our first evidence session, when it was the immediate and unanimous view of the committee that it must change the title to “shop theft”. We felt that was more important than might perhaps first be believed. The term “shoplifting” seemed to trivialise the crime and give the impression that it was relatively harmless and victimless. As the noble Lord, Lord Hannett, has rightly made very clear to us, it is anything but victimless. The victims are on the front lines in the shops. Whether it is fair or not, the widely held belief that the police do not take this issue too seriously simply enhances that impression.

The committee’s first recommendation, which I strongly endorse, is that “shop theft” should replace “shoplifting” wherever possible. Its regular use in everyday language by local and national government, the police and the media—and, not least, the retail trade itself—will go some way to reinforcing its serious nature. Over what I believe will be a surprisingly short time, everyday language will start to change, and with it will come the recognition that we are talking about something very serious indeed—not just kids nicking a few sweets from the local sweet shop. We can make a start on that in this debate. In her response to the committee, the Minister committed to using the expression “shop theft” when appropriate. When the Minister replies, can he give us an indication of what the Government consider “appropriate” and, rather more particularly, when its use would be inappropriate?

This morning, I spoke to one of our local Members of Parliament. He told me that, in his south London suburban constituency, shop theft is the issue most often raised with him, after housing. It is widely accepted that shop theft is greatly underreported, often because victims do not believe that the police will be able to do anything about it. My MP colleague told me that there are two large, well-known supermarkets next to each other on the main shopping street in his constituency. One reports all incidents of shop theft to the police, while the one next door reports such incidents only to its head office.

Reliably accurate figures are hard to agree, and I suspect that we will hear a number of different figures today. The figures reported to our committee are that, in the year to March 2024, 443,995 incidents of shop theft were recorded by the police, a 30% increase on the previous year. However, evidence to the committee suggested that that was a “drop in the ocean” compared to the likely real figures. We were told that the real figure was more in the region of 17 million incidents a year, with a cost to the retailer of around £2 billion—and rising fast. Can the Minister tell us what steps are being taken to achieve better and more accurate reporting and recording of shop theft incidents?

Clearly, we are not talking about petty pilfering—nicking from the local sweet shop, for instance; this is serious organised crime and needs to be dealt with as such. The committee learned about Pegasus, a new partnership between retailers and the police aimed at building up a better picture of the organised criminal networks involved in retail crime. I very much welcome this partnership working and would like to see it extended to include local authorities. But Pegasus is seriously inhibited by its definition of “organised crime” as that

“which operates across two or more police force areas”,

meaning that it excludes all activity and information at a more local level. As a former local authority council leader, I believe that it is at the local level where we begin to start tackling these issues. Perhaps the Minister can tell us who is responsible for that definition. I do not know whether it is the Government or the police, as I suspect it is. More particularly, who can get it changed?

Clearly, there must be a market to dispose of such a volume of stolen goods, and much of that is in online sales. The committee recommended that the Government introduce regulations to make it more difficult to sell goods anonymously in an online marketplace. Can the Minister tell us what steps the Government are taking to crack down on that? Shop theft is clearly now a very serious problem that is hugely damaging to retailers, shop workers, the general public and the economy. All the evidence shows that it is increasing rapidly. We all look forward to hearing from the Minister how the Government are tackling it.