Retail Trade: Crime
(asked on 28th November 2023) - View Source
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many recorded incidents of (a) violence, (b) abuse, (c) theft and (d) other crimes against retailers took place in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020, (iii) 2021 and (iv) 2022.
The latest estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales show that levels of crime on a comparable basis are down by 56% compared with the year ending March 2010.
The Home Office collects and publishes data on crime affecting retail premises as part of the Commercial Victimisation survey, the publication for 2022 was published in May 2023 and is available at:
The data collected includes an estimation of the proportion of commercial premises which were a victim of crime. The data does not provide an estimate of the number of specific incidents of violence, abuse, theft, or other crimes.
The Government is clear that violent and abusive behaviour towards any public-facing worker is never acceptable. We take this issue very seriously and recognise the implications these incidents can have on businesses as well as the victims.
On 23 October, the National Police Chiefs Council launched their Retail Crime Action Plan; which includes a police commitment to prioritise attending the scene of retail crime instances where violence has been used; where an offender has been detained; or where evidence needs to be promptly secured and can only be done in person by police personnel.
The 23 October also saw the launch of Pegasus, a unique private-public partnership that will radically improve the way retailers are able to share intelligence with policing, to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.