Shoplifting
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what percentage of reported incidents of shoplifting result in a (a) suspect being arrested and (b) prosecution being authorised by the CPS.
Answered by Dame Diana Johnson
The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of shoplifting and bicycle theft offences, and their investigative outcomes, recorded by the police in England and Wales. This includes a breakdown of those where a suspect has been charged. However, the data held centrally does not provide a breakdown on whether the police have made a charging decision themselves or had it authorised by the CPS.
The data is published every quarter as official statistics and the latest can be accessed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
The Home Office does not hold data centrally on the number of people arrested for shoplifting or bicycle theft.
The Home Office collects and publishes data on the number of arrests made by police in England and Wales, broken down by offence group, on an annual basis. The latest data, covering the period to March 2024, is available here:
However, the data is collected by broader offence group only, such as ‘theft offences’, and further details are not provided.
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