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The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has welcomed progress on the Crime and Policing Bill as it completed its Second Reading in the House of Lords yesterday, and will now go to the Committee Stage.
The bill will remove the £200 threshold for ‘low level’ theft which the organisation believes will send a clear signal that all shoplifting is “unacceptable and will not be tolerated”.
The legislation will also introduce a standalone offence for assaulting a retail worker, which will increase sentencing and improve the visibility of violence against retail workers so that police can allocate the necessary resources to tackle this challenge.
However, the BRC has called for the bill to go further and protect all people working in customer facing roles. It said it currently remains unclear whether the offence for assaulting a retail worker will cover delivery drivers, as is the case in Scotland.
According to the organisation, figures from Usdaw revealed that more than three quarters of delivery drivers have been a victim of abuse and over one in ten have been assaulted during the last twelve months.
Lucy Whing, crime policy adviser at the BRC, said: “We are glad to be one step closer to the implementation of the Crime and Policing Bill. As the government takes action to address retail crime, retailers hope this Bill will play a vital role in protecting retail workers from harm and tackling the surge in theft.
“However, the Bill must go further. All people working in customer facing roles in the industry deserve equal protection, as is the case in Scotland. We call on the government to ensure that the final Act ensures the extension of protections to delivery drivers.”
