Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to introduce specific protections for wholesale workers.

Shop theft continues to increase at an unacceptable level with more and more offenders using violence and abuse against shopworkers to do this. Everybody has a right to feel safe on the job and this Government is committed to taking retail crime seriously.

Partnership working to tackle retail crime is essential. I am committed to chairing the Retail Crime Forum, which the Federation of Wholesale Distributors are a member of, to ensure we understand the needs of all retailers and to promote collaboration between the retail sector, security providers and law enforcement.

This Government 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.

The Home Office Commercial Victimisation Survey 2023, published in May 2024, showed that theft by customer was the most prevalent type of theft experienced in the retail and wholesale sector, experienced by 26% of premises. The wholesale and retail sector experienced a higher prevalence of victimisation (41%) compared with most other commercial sectors.