Shoplifting in England and Wales Hits New 20-Year High

A shopper walking through the aisle of an unidentified Tesco supermarket in England on Sept. 3, 2022. (PA)

Police in England and Wales have reported a record-high increase in the number of shoplifting offences in the year to March 2024.

Shoplifting levels had already reached a 20-year high earlier this year, with the latest data showing a new surge.

Overall theft increased by 3 percent, to 1.8 million offences, compared with 1.7 million in the year to March 2023. Shoplifting offences and theft from a person were the main drivers of the increase.

There were 443,995 shoplifting offences, logged by forces in the year to March 2024, up 30 percent on the 342,428 recorded in the previous 12 months.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also reported that offences involving theft from the person rose to 131,453 incidents in 2023/24, up 17 percent from 112,225 in 2022/2023.

“Today’s damning crime figures exposed the abysmal Tory legacy on law and order. Soaring street crime and shoplifting. Yet neighbourhood police have plummeted,” said Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

She vowed to “put neighbourhood police back on the beat and in town centres to keep communities safe.”

The ONS’s overview of main crime types also found that the number of theft offences was second only to fraud.

An estimated 26 percent of wholesale and retail premises experienced customer theft during the previous year. This represents a “statistically significant increase,” compared with 20 percent in 2014.

The Association of Convenience Stores (ASC) said that the official figures represent “just a fraction of the levels of theft that are happening in convenience stores and other retail outlets on a daily basis.”

“The gangs that are committing the majority of these crimes against retailers are typically organised, stealing to fund other criminal activity or drug and alcohol habits. They are often stealing to order, targeting higher-value items to sell on to normal people who are struggling with the cost of living,” said the ACS chief executive James Lowman.

He said it was “essential” to take theft seriously because it is “one of the biggest triggers for abuse of shopworkers.”

‘Much Needed Protection’

The shoplifting statistics come amid long-standing calls by retailers to make assaulting a shop worker a standalone offence.

The Conservative government made a last-minute U-turn on the policy in April, having previously argued that a legislative change wasn’t necessary. However, pressed by MPs and retailers, Rishi Sunak’s government had ultimately announced plans to include the standalone offence provision in the Criminal Justice Bill.

The bill was making its way through parliament under the previous government but wasn’t yet passed by the time of the general election.

Retailers have said that the delay has hurt the sector and called for the Labour government to deliver the “much-needed protection of shop workers’ law.”

“We look forward to Labour delivering a much-needed protection of shop workers’ law; ending the indefensible £200 threshold for prosecuting shoplifters, which has effectively become an open invitation to retail criminals; and funding more uniformed officers patrolling shopping areas along with town centre banning orders for repeat offenders,” said the general secretary of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers union, Paddy Lillis.

In England and Wales, the £200 threshold was introduced in the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. It means that shoplifters taking under £200 worth of goods face a maximum sentence of six months and can plead guilty by post.

The Criminal Justice Bill, announced in last week’s King’s Speech, is part of the new government’s plan to crackdown on anti-social behaviour and introduce tough new penalties for offenders.

It is set to introduce measures to tackle retail crime, introduce a new specific offence of assaulting a shopworker and introduce stronger measures to tackle low-level shoplifting.

The civil liberties organisation Liberty has previously warned that many Britons, including young people, shoplift to cope with the cost-of-living crisis.

The campaigners called on policymakers to focus on the reasons behind the crisis rather than cracking down on people forced to shoplift for essentials.