Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken with police forces to tackle a) physical and b) verbal abuse against retail workers.

Charges for shop theft rose by 25% (up to 107,090 charges) in the year ending June 2025. As this was a higher rate of increase than the rise in shop thefts recorded (13%), this led to an increase in the charge rate from 17.7% to 19.1%.

This Government is committed to restoring visible, responsive neighbourhood policing with 3,000 additional officers in neighbourhood policing roles by spring this year.

In the Crime and Policing Bill, we are bringing a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores and we are removing the legislation which makes shop theft of and below £200 a summary-only offence, sending a clear message that any level of shop theft is illegal and will be taken seriously.

The Home Office has regular discussions with the police and other partners on protecting retail workers and tackling shop theft.

We are also providing over £7 million over the next three years to support the police and retailers tackle retail crime, including continuing to fund a specialist policing team – in partnership with the retail sector - to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.