Police have recorded 469,788 shoplifting offences in England and Wales in the year to June 2024, a new 20-year high.
Attacks on Staff
The data come as major retailers have raised concerns about how increases in shoplifting have been affecting their businesses.Iceland Executive Chairman Richard Walker has said his company was spending “more than ever” on security, but “serious incidents have never been higher.”
Last month, the Co-operative Group said that the cost of crime in its shops has increased by nearly one-fifth, rising to £39.5 million in the first half of 2024 alone.
Co-op Food spent £18 million so far this year on measures to protect staff, including fortified kiosks and body-worn cameras.
The retailer said every day, four colleagues are attacked, up 34 percent on 2022, and a further 115 are seriously abused, up 37 percent on two years ago.
And last year, Dame Sharon White, the chairwoman of the John Lewis Partnership, which also owns Waitrose, said that shoplifting had become an “epidemic,” and that incidents were not always investigated by police.
The Crime and Policing Bill outlined in the King’s Speech in July confirmed that the government would take action to tackle retail crime, including introducing stronger measures to tackle shoplifting and creating a new specific offence of assaulting a shopworker.
1.8 Million Theft Offences
Overall, data showed that police-recorded theft was at 1.8 million offences in the year to June 2024, an increase of 3 percent on the year before.The ONS said this was predominantly the result of increases in shoplifting offences and theft from the person offences, which is were a criminal steals property while it is being held or carried by the victim, such as snatch-thefts and pickpocketing. Thefts from the person had risen to 139,369 offences, up 20 percent from 116,312 on the year before.
Robberies—which the ONS defines as being thefts involving violence or threats of violence, such as in muggings—have also increased, rising to 81,931, which is 6 percent higher than the year before when there were 77,106 robberies.
Knife crime rose by 4 percent from 49,187 to 50,973, and there was also a “notable increase” in the number of robberies involving a knife or other sharp instrument, with 21,759 offences recorded, up 11 percent.
Johnson said: “Too many town centres have been decimated by record levels of shoplifting, and communities have been left shaken by rising levels of knife crime, snatch theft, and robbery. This cannot continue.
“This government will restore neighbourhood policing across the country, put thousands more dedicated officers out on our streets, and scrap the £200 shoplifting threshold, bringing an end to the effective impunity for thieves who steal low value goods.”
However, the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) said that despite the right messaging coming from the government, the experience of shopkeepers in communities has not changed.
ACS Chief Executive James Lowman said in a statement, “Local shop owners and their colleagues are becoming quite sick of assurances from politicians, they want a response when they are put at risk and for criminals to be apprehended and sanctioned effectively.”
“These figures should prompt a redoubling of efforts from everyone involved in tackling shop theft: retailers reporting crime every time, the police investigating every offence and identifying prolific repeat offenders, and the courts system applying effective penalties that aim to break the cycle of re-offending,” Lowman added.
