The Government has announced that assaulting a shopkeeper will become a specific criminal offence.
This announcement follows an extensive campaign by retailers calling for a policy change. Despite previous assertions in response to an October parliamentary petition that such legislation wasn't "required or will be most effective", Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed on Wednesday that the Government's Criminal Justice Bill would be amended to include this new law, applicable in England and Wales.
In his statement, the PM declared, "I am sending a message to those criminals whether they are serious organised criminal gangs, repeat offenders or opportunistic thieves who think they can get away with stealing from these local businesses or abusing shopworkers, enough is enough."
He further cemented the importance of local shops stating, "Our local shops are the lifeblood of our communities, and they must be free to trade without the threat of crime or abuse." The proposed offence will carry a maximum penalty of six months' imprisonment or an unlimited fine, mirroring the existing sentence for common assault.
Repeat offenders may also be subjected to compulsory electronic tagging, including consistent shoplifters, as part of the Bill currently undergoing parliamentary scrutiny. The Government is set to trial community sentencing initiatives with an unnamed police force to curb the surge in shoplifting and plans to ramp up the use of facial recognition tech to spot individuals wanted by the cops in busy spots.
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Judges can already slap repeat offenders with bans from specific stores under criminal behaviour orders, risking a five-year stretch inside for flouting the rules. This push for a distinct crime comes after a persistent drive by big retailers and Tory MP Matt Vickers, following a spike in attacks on shop staff.
In the last half-year, a petition demanding the creation of a standalone offence for assaulting retail workers has garnered over 47,000 signatures. However, a preliminary reply from last October stated: "The Government is committed to supporting hardworking retail workers, who can suffer intolerable violence and abuse, but we do not think more legislative change is required or will be most effective."
The statement continued, noting that the Government had already passed laws in 2022 to classify attacking a "public-facing worker", including retail employees, as an aggravated offence during sentencing, highlighting the utter unacceptability of such assaults.
Earlier in the year, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) released findings showing a shocking 50% jump in violent and abusive episodes targeting shopworkers between the fiscal years 2021/22 and 2022/23.
Helen Dickinson, chairwoman of the BRC hailed the recent announcement as a significant breakthrough, stating: "The voices of the three million people working in retail are finally being heard. The impact of retail violence has steadily worsened, with people facing racial abuse, sexual harassment, threatening behaviour, physical assault and threats with weapons, often linked to organised crime."
She added: "Victims are ordinary hardworking people teenagers taking on their first job, carers looking for part-time work, parents working around childcare."
Paddy Lillis, Usdaw's general secretary, welcomed the Government's change of stance but noted it was "long overdue". He criticised the Government's previous inaction: "The dither and delay of this Government on this issue, over many years, has led to thousands of shopworkers needlessly suffering physical and mental injury."
He expressed his hopes for the new measures: "I hope that whatever the Government is proposing will be substantial and effective in giving shopworkers, key workers in every community, the respect that they have long deserved and regrettably too often do not receive."
Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary, was less impressed by the Government's proposals, calling them "a pale imitation" of Labour's plans. Cooper pointed out a worrying trend: "Under the Tories too many communities and high streets are being blighted by staggering increases in shoplifting, up 30% in the last year alone."
"Labour has been calling for tougher action against those who assault shopworkers for more than 10 years. The Tories opposed and voted against our plans for better protection. Why has it taken them so long to act? ".
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