British Retail Consortium: Retail Crime "Out of Control"

Retail industry trade association the British Retail Consortium has warned that retail crime is "out of control".

The comment comes with the publication of the BRC's Annual Crime Survey, which highlights a more than three-fold increase in retail violence and abuse since 2020.

Data for the annual survey was collected between 1st September 2023 and 31st August 2024. During that time the cost of crime to the industry was £4.2 billion, of which £2.2 billion was a direct result of customer theft.

On a typical day there were around 2,000 incidents of violence or abuse against retail workers, which signifies an increase of 60 percent on the previous year. Weapons were involved an average of 70 times per day, which represents a 180 percent increase on the previous year.

Retailers reported only a third of violent or abusive incidents to the police, which in turn responded to only a third of those reported. In only 2 percent of cases was there a conviction arising from the violent or abusive behaviour.

When asked why they reported so few cases to the police, the overwhelming opinion was that there was no point as nothing would happen. This is corroborated by almost two-thirds of retailers describing the police response as being "poor" or "very poor".

The industry spent £1.8 billion on crime and loss prevention, which represents a 52 percent increase on the previous year. Around one-tenth of that was spent on cyber crime prevention.

Retailers issued more than 400,000 banning orders to individuals involved in criminality and antisocial behaviour.

Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the BRC, said: "Retail crime is spiralling out of control. People in retail have been spat on, racially abused, and threatened with machetes. Every day this continues, criminals are getting bolder and more aggressive. We owe it to the three million hardworking people working in retail to bring the epidemic of crime to heel. No one should go to work in fear.

"With little faith in police attendance, it is no wonder criminals feel they have licence to steal, threaten, assault and abuse. Retailers are spending more than ever before, but they cannot prevent crime alone. We need the police to respond to and handle every reported incident appropriately. We look forward to seeing crucial legislation to protect retail workers being put in place later this year. Only if the industry, Government and police work together, can we finally see this awful trend reverse."

The Government has committed to legislation that will make it a specific offence to assault retail workers. In its manifesto it also pledged to introduce new "respect orders" that could be used to ban persistent adult offenders from retail crime hot spots.

In the short term retailers need to have the confidence that if they report incidents to the police they will receive a response and, where appropriate, be suitably investigated and prosecuted. Retail workers also need to have the confidence that if they intervene to prevent or stop retail crime, they themselves will not fall foul of the law.