“Going to work now means putting personal safety on the line,” noted Pete Cheema, chief executive of Scottish Grocers’ Foundation, in a recent report detailing the rising levels of crime facing the UK’s highstreets.
Among other worrying findings, the report ascertained that three quarters of retailers believe that soaring levels of crime have directly affected the mental health of staff members, and 78.3 per cent believe physical violence against staff members is increasing.
The research supports similar findings from a study conducted in 2025. Back in July, the ONS announced that shoplifting across the UK had hit record highs. A total of 530,643 shoplifting offences were reported in the year to March 2025, a 20 per cent increase from the previous year.
“The ONS figures prove what retailers have long been telling us, that retail theft is spiralling out of control,” commented British Retailers Association director Tom Ironside at the time, adding that the cost to retailers and customers totalled over £2.2bn a year.
“The rise in organised crime is a significant concern, with gangs hitting store after store, even within a single day,” Ironside noted.
Further research from the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), released in October of 2025, revealed that while the rate of increase has slowed since it peaked of 37 per cent at the end of 2023, incidents of retail crime have more than doubled since the pandemic.
Offenders ‘unlikely to face consequences’
In the SFG’s recent report, Cheema called the current increasing rate of crime “a public safety emergency hiding in plain sight,” and added that “retailers urgently need support.”
Many trade bodies have called for an end to £200 threshold for action against shoplifting. Under current legislation, thefts under that value are treated as summary-only offences and not prioritised by police.
Currently, the ‘Crime and Policing Bill’ which aims to put an end to the rule, is in the process of being debated within the House of Lords, and has not yet passed as of February 2026.
The government states that the passing of the bill would ‘ensure that all offences are tried as ‘general theft’ (an either way offence with a maximum custodial sentence of seven years), instead of summarily in the magistrates’ court, unless the defendant elects for jury trial.’
However the SGF believes that wider reform is needed if retail crime is to be stemmed fully. “The police and courts are overwhelmed, and many crimes go unreported because retailers lack confidence that action will be taken. Offenders know that they are unlikely to face consequences, and even when arrests are made, cases can take years to reach conviction,” said Cheema.
Ironside holds a similar position, having previously told the BBC that removing the £200 threshold is a strong start, and would “send a clear signal that all shoplifting is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
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