Retailers demand govt action on rising crime

LONDON: Some 88 UK retail leaders, including the bosses of Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer, have signed a letter to interior minister Suella Braverman, demanding action over rising rates of retail crime.

Rising crime is increasingly becoming a political issue in Britain ahead of an expected national election in 2024.

Industry lobby group the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said its 2023 crime survey showed that incidents of violence and abuse towards retail workers almost doubled compared with pre-pandemic levels to 867 incidents every day in 2021/2022.

It also put the scale of retail theft at £953mil (US$1.2bil), despite over £700mil in crime prevention spending by retailers.

“The situation has clearly got worse; a separate BRC survey of members in 2023 found that levels of shoplifting in 10 major cities had risen by an average of 27%,” it said.

Ahead of the start of the ruling Conservative Party’s annual conference in Manchester yesterday, the letter outlines two demands from the retail industry to government.

It wants the government to create a standalone offence of assaulting or abusing a retail worker, with tougher sentences for offenders.

This would require police forces to record all incidents of retail crime.

The industry also wants greater prioritisation of retail crime by police forces across the UK. — Reuters