Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of the new offence of assaulting a shop worker on levels of retail crime.

Through our Crime and Policing Bill, this Government has introduced a new specific standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker to help tackle the epidemic of shop theft and violence towards shop workers that we have seen in recent years and protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.

This bespoke offence will send a clear signal to perpetrators that assaults on retail workers are unacceptable and won’t go unpunished. It will also ensure that assaults on retail workers are separately recorded so that we know the true scale of the problem, enabling the police to respond accordingly.

The Government is also supporting the ‘Tackling Retail Crime Together Strategy’, which was jointly developed by the police and industry, providing a collaborative and evidence-based approach in preventing and detecting retail crime.

We are providing £7 million over a three‑year period covering 2025 to 2028, to 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.

Additionally, 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.