- More Crimes Being Reported But
Still 10x Short of Real Incident Rate
The Association of Convenience Stores has responded to the
publication of record new crime figures from the
Office for National Statistics, highlighting the continued
need for action on shop theft and other retail crime offences.
The figures, released this morning, show the number of
shoplifting offences that have been recorded by the police over
the last year. In the year to March 2025, shoplifting offences
rose by 20% to 530,643 from 444,022 in the previous year. This is
the highest figure recorded by the ONS since the figures started
being collected in this way in 2003, continuing a trend of
record-breaking levels of theft.
Association of Convenience Stores chief executive James Lowman
said: “These record-breaking shop theft figures continue to
demonstrate the need for retail crime to be taken seriously
throughout the justice system, as only then will we be able to
start bringing the numbers down and stop widespread reoffending
by criminals that are acting with confidence that they will not
be apprehended. While there is still a huge gap between the
recorded figures and the reality of the number of thefts taking
place, the one positive to take from these numbers is that more
crimes are being reported, although this is still far too low. We
encourage retailers to report every crime that is committed
against their business.”
Figures from the ACS 2025 Crime Report
show that convenience stores recorded over 6.2million incidents
of shop theft over the last year and that more than half of
retailers (59%) believed that organised crime had increased over
the last year. The report highlights significant challenges with
the level of crime reporting – just over a third of all crimes
(36%) were reported to the police by retailers over the last
year, with those figures much lower for shop theft incidents.
Mr Lowman continued: “Retailers tell us that they won't report
crime if they have no faith in it being investigated. There are
pockets of good practice around the country: slick and effective
reporting platforms, committed officers investigating theft and
other crimes, and effective penalties that can break the cycle of
reoffending, but these examples are still too rare. The
Government must keep resourcing the police and demanding
effective enforcement to support local shops.”
The Crime and Policing Bill will be introduced later this year,
making it a separate offence to assault a shopworker among other
measures. ACS has been calling for a complete reset on the
perception of retail crime and especially shop theft, with an
ambition to send a clear message that theft is a crime that will
be investigated by local forces.
