Usdaw has welcomed the passage of the Crime and Policing Bill through its third reading in the House of Lords, hailing the legislation as a landmark moment for the protection of shop workers.
The bill includes a standalone offence for assaulting a shop worker, removes the £200 threshold for prosecuting shoplifting offences and introduces new Respect Orders aimed at tackling repeat offending.
It will now return to the House of Commons for consideration of Lords amendments in the next stage of the legislative process, known as parliamentary “ping-pong”.
The development marks a significant step in a long-running campaign by retail employers and trade bodies to secure stronger legal protections for frontline workers amid persistently high levels of abuse, threats and violence in stores.
Usdaw said its latest annual survey of nearly 9,000 retail staff underlined the urgency of reform. According to the union, 78 per cent of respondents said they had been verbally abused in 2025, 54 per cent had been threatened and 11 per cent had been assaulted.
The union added that violence against shop workers remains more than twice pre-pandemic levels, while shoplifting has more than doubled since Covid.
Usdaw general secretary Joanne Thomas said retail workers were continuing to pay the price for rising crime and abuse in stores.
“No-one should feel afraid to go to work, but our evidence shows that nearly four in five of our members working in retail are being abused, threatened and assaulted for simply doing their job and serving the community,” she said.
“They provide an essential service and deserve our respect and the protection of the law.”
Thomas also criticised opposition to the bill in Wales, after Members of the Senedd representing the Conservatives, Reform UK and Plaid Cymru declined consent to the legislation.
Home Office minister Lord Hanson told peers the government was continuing discussions over how the bill would apply in Wales.
Thomas said: “It is difficult to understand why the main opposition parties in Wales came together to oppose a new law to protect retail staff. Shoplifting in Wales has doubled since the pandemic, and that is directly linked to the increase in attacks on staff.
“It would be shameful if the Tories, Plaid and Reform have blocked this important legislation from applying in Wales.”
She said the passage of the bill in the Lords was a major milestone for retail workers and for the wider industry campaign to tackle retail crime more seriously.
“After many years of campaigning alongside retail employers, it really now feels like governments are listening and taking action to give all retail workers across the UK the protections and respect they deserve,” Thomas said.
She added that once the legislation is enacted, the focus must shift to enforcement, with closer collaboration between government, councils, police and retailers to improve awareness, reporting and responses to retail crime.
Usdaw also pointed to wider government efforts to address the issue, including closer working between police and the retail sector, reforms designed to free up local forces to focus on neighbourhood crime and the introduction of a named, contactable officer for every community under the government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.
The union said the move brings England and Wales closer in line with developments elsewhere in the UK, noting that Scotland already has dedicated protections for retail workers and that Northern Ireland has introduced similar measures through its Sentencing Bill.
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