Retail Trade: Crimes of Violence
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to help protect high street retail workers from violence or threats from customers, including smaller independent shops.
Answered by Sarah Jones
According to the British Retail Consortium Crime Report 2026, there were around 590,000 incidents of violence and abuse in 2024-25, down 20% from 737,000 in 2023-24.
The levels of violence and abuse towards retail workers are unacceptable. We are ensuring the right powers are in place to tackle this.
We will deliver 13,000 additional neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament. By February 2026 we had delivered more than 3,100 additional police officers and PCSOs into neighbourhood roles. The first-year growth target was first exceeded in January 2026, two months ahead of schedule.
Through our Crime and Policing Bill, this Government has introduced a new specific standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker to help tackle the epidemic of shop theft and violence towards shop workers that we have seen in recent years and protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.
This bespoke offence will send a clear signal to perpetrators that assaults on retail workers are unacceptable and won’t go unpunished. It will also ensure that assaults on retail workers are separately recorded so that we know the true scale of the problem, enabling the police to respond accordingly.
We are driving closer partnership between the police and retail sector through the Retail Crime Forum. This includes tackling the most prolific retail offenders - where a few individuals can drive a large proportion of the local crime problem. We are working across Government, with police forces and the retail sector to develop a pilot model to identify, target and intervene with these offenders, who cause unacceptable harm in our communities.
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