Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has held discussions with representatives of the retail sector on preventing attacks on staff working in shops.

The Government is clear that violence and abuse towards any worker is not acceptable.

The Home Office works closely with retailers and trade organisations and police partners via the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG) to understand the issues retailers are experiencing. The NRCSG meet twice yearly, and discussions include how to help reduce incidents of violence and abuse towards shop staff, and to support staff when this does occur.

On a national level, we continue to work closely with the police-led National Business Crime Centre (NBCC) to understand the crimes affecting businesses and help ensure businesses and police are working effectively together.

In addition, section 156 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 introduced a statutory aggravating factor for assault against any public facing worker. This ensures the courts treat the public-facing nature of a victim’s role as an aggravating factor when considering the sentence for any assault offence where they consider this factor to be relevant.