The Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (above) thanked the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), the British Retail Consortium, Usdaw and the Co-op for their “determined campaigning over many years to protect shop workers” as the Crime and Policing Bill passed through its Second Reading earlier this week (10 March).
In the next stage of the upcoming bill from the Government - which has been broadly welcomed by the convenience sector - Cooper outlined details to create a standalone offence for assaulting a shopworker, introduce Respect Orders, scrap the £200 threshold for shop thefts and place £200 million for the next financial year on recruiting 13,000 more neighbourhood police and police community support officers.
Cooper also highlighted the challenges in rural communities from crime, often driven by organised gangs. As a direct result, the bill introduces measures to prevent prolific offenders from entering town centres, as well as introducing interventions to help addicts and end the cycle of reoffending through treatment.
The ACS’s own Crime Report was also launched on Monday 10 March, revealing the extent of crime committed against the convenience sector and its retailers, estimating a record-breaking 6.2m incidents of shop theft.
You can read the full report from the ACS here.
As previously reported by Convenience Store, the key figures from this year’s report include the fact that crime cost retailers an estimated £316m over the last year and that they have spent over £265m on crime prevention and detection measures in stores. Taken together, the cost of crime and investment in crime prevention amount to a 10p crime tax on every transaction in a convenience store.
Speaking to Convenience Store, James Lowman, ACS chief executive, said: “We strongly support the Crime and Policing Bill, which will provide better protections for retail workers, ensure that theft offences are not left unchecked, and put more police on the streets to tackle the major issue of repeat offenders and organised criminality that local shops have to deal with in their communities.”
The ACS will continue to work closely with the Home Office on the passage of the Bill and solutions that can make a positive difference for convenience store retailers, it said.
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