Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) tackle gangs of armed shoplifters and (b) protect retail workers.

Since 2019, we have made available £340m to tackle serious violence. This investment includes the creation of 20 Violence Reduction Units and a Young Women and Girls Fund. These programmes are tackling gang activity and supporting young people who have been affected by it.

The Home Office continues to work closely with retail businesses, security representatives, trade associations and policing through the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG) to ensure the response to crime affecting retailers is as robust as it can be.

Katy Bourne, Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners Business Crime lead, has established a working group, Pegasus, to tackle serious organised retail crime. Pegasus will bring together policing and the retail sector to share intelligence and analyse serious organised retail crime, to assist police forces to respond to this crime.

Police recorded offences in England and Wales (excluding Devon and Cornwall) for shoplifting and all theft offences for year ending December 2022 are showing a fall of 12% and 13% respectively compared with the pre-pandemic period of March 2020.

The latest Crime Survey for England and Wales estimates for year ending March 2023 showed a 20% decrease in theft offences compared with estimates from the year ending March 2020 survey.