Crime and Policing Bill

Lord Hannett of Everton Excerpts

2nd reading
Thursday 16th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hannett of Everton (Lab)]

My Lords, I add my congratulations to the Minister, particularly on her skill in introducing such a wide-ranging Bill. My interest is parochial in the sense that, while there are many subjects here that require appropriate attention and scrutiny, as a previous general secretary of a retail union and somebody who has been involved in the issue of retail crime for many years, I want, in the short time available, to bring the impact on retail workers into this Chamber.

Some months ago, I introduced a debate in this Chamber on retail crime and there were many speakers—in fact, there was universal support; why would there not be?—on the subject of the abuse of workers. There are nearly 3 million workers in retail. In 2003, I had the responsibility and the pleasure to introduce the Freedom From Fear campaign in retail in my union. It sounds dramatic but it was born out of necessity, when there was such systematic verbal and physical abuse. One of the criticisms of many retail workers was that politicians were not listening. Of course, politicians cannot resolve the ills of society with one clause, but the message Ministers have sent out by this stand-alone clause is significant. The attention it has received in my union says that politicians not only make speeches but conclude actions. For me, it is a conclusion of hard work.

I could give many examples to bring to life the effect of verbal and physical abuse, but time does not allow, so I shall quote just a couple. Before I do, I want to say that verbal abuse might seem a victimless crime and just something that people do when they can or when they do not get their way in a store, but it is demeaning. We have heard of it in many other contexts in this Chamber. The right to go to work and be safe is fundamental in the workplace. This has never been an adversarial campaign. Retailers have supported it. The British Retail Consortium and many of the big retail companies were with us on this. In fact, when it started, all the recording was about the theft in the stores, not the reality of the impact on the employees. That day is gone. This decision by this Government sends the right message that abuse will never be tolerated.

Of course, one stand-alone clause does not in itself solve everything and we will monitor its impact in due course. There will be calls for an extension of it to other front-line workers, but we must not let that negate its importance. One of the best recruitment opportunities I had as a leader of a trade union was when we introduced this campaign and people who had never have wanted to join a union in the past liked the idea that they had somebody speaking up for them who was prepared to discuss with the companies, the stakeholders and politicians. So, whatever reservations there may be about specific clauses, the Government should be congratulated on this one. This is extremely important.

I will give two examples. A store manager, who had been assaulted three times, gave his job up. He could not face returning to the workplace. A young woman who had two children and was the only earner could not face coming back to the workplace. I know that is trying to draw a degree of emotion into this, but these are real people. Some 70% are receiving verbal abuse, and behind that statistic are individuals. So I applaud the Government for the Bill and I look forward to watching it work its way through and to contributing.