Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help tackle retail crime in (a) Southampton and (b) nationally; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional powers to the police for this purpose.

Shop theft is at a record high, police recorded crime for shoplifting in Southampton Community Partnership area saw an increase of (43%) in the latest year and a higher increase than in England and Wales as a whole (29%).

This Government is taking strong action to tackle this problem by ending the effective immunity, introduced by the previous Government, granted to shop theft of goods under £200. We will also introduce a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.

As announced in the Autumn Budget, and building on current Home Office funding, we will provide:

£5 million over three years to continue to fund a specialist analysis team within Opal, the National Policing Intelligence Unit for serious organised acquisitive crime, to crack down on organised gangs targeting retailers;

£2 million over three years to the National Business Crime Centre, a resource for police and businesses to learn, share and support each other to prevent and combat crime; and

£100k in 2025-26 for the National Police Chiefs' Council for further training on prevention tactics.