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”.
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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.
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