The Crime and Policing Bill completed its Second Reading
in the House of Lords yesterday, and will now go to the Committee
Stage. In response, 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.
“The Bill will remove the £200 threshold for ‘low level' theft,
which will send a clear signal that all shoplifting is
unacceptable and will not be tolerated. It 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 Bill must go further. All people working in
customer facing roles in the industry deserve equal protection,
as is the case in Scotland. It remains unclear if the offence
will cover delivery drivers, despite new figures from Usdaw
revealing that more than three quarters have been a victim of
abuse and over one in ten have been assaulted during the last
twelve months. We call on the government to ensure that the final
Act ensures the extension of protections to delivery drivers.”
