Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to include provisions on the protection of wholesale workers in the Crime and Policing Bill.

Shop theft continues to increase at an unacceptable level, up 29% on year up to June 2024, with more and more offenders using violence and abuse against shopworkers to do this. We won’t stand for this.

Everybody has a right to feel safe on the job and this government is committed to taking retail crime seriously.

As part of the Government’s Safer Streets Mission, we will introduce a new specific offence for assaults on shopworkers to protect them from violence and abuse.

The scope of this new offence will be confirmed when legislation is brought forward.