The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has welcomed Labour’s recent stance on retail crime, where it pledged to investigate all shoplifting cases no matter the size.
Speaking at the Labour Party conference yesterday, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper claimed the party would ditch the £200 rule on shoplifting to clamp down on crime.
In 2014, a law change was introduced meaning anyone charged with the theft of items under £200 did not need to attend court.
Cooper said: “We will stand with USDAW [Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers], with the Coop, with Tesco, with our convenience stores, with retailers and shopworkers across the country, with a new law and tougher sentences for attacks on our shopworkers because everyone has the right to feel safe at work”.
Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest news straight into your inbox each morning
Backing the pledge, BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: “With more than 850 incidents of violence or abuse every single day, we need action to protect our retail colleagues.
“We welcome the Labour Party and the shadow home secretary’s commitment to introduce a new law to protect retail workers from violence and abuse”.
She continued: “We need a standalone offence to improve the visibility of the issue, so that police can allocate appropriate resources to the challenge, and to act as a deterrent to would-be offenders”.
Cooper also pledged to bring in an offence for assaulting a shop worker, meaning attackers would be jailed for up to two years if convicted.
The news follows retailers urging police to investigate all intimidation and assault reports in an open letter last month.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
6 Comments. Leave new
Shoplifting is a crime so if I owned store I would sue the police. Shoplifters know they can get away with the crime. Shame on the police !
Please don’t tell me anyone actually considers this will make any difference at all.
I work for a Business Crime Reduction Partnership and it would be wonderful if we could get 25% of those who steal more than £200 into court
Typical labour. Grandstanding on an issue that can’t be reversed.
So just to be clear, anyone can go into a shop and steal £199 of goods without any reprisals at all?
Am I missing something?
Believe me James people are constantly stealing hundreds even thousands of pounds worth of goods on some occasions without any reprisals. The level of theft is frightening. Changing the law will not have the slightest effect. Who is going to enforce it? Look in your local paper and see the pathetic punishments given to ‘prolific’ offenders when they do appear in court. No deterent whatsoever
English law is a joke, surely everyone can see shoplifting is a gateway crime, when people especially children get away with it easily it makes other crimes more likely,
Every crime should be dealt with seriously to prevent other crimes in the future