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05 Dec 2024
Lords Chamber
Retail Crime: Effects
  1. ANALYSIS

The Lords Chamber proceeding on retail crime focused extensively on understanding the wide-ranging impact of retail crime on workers, communities, and local economies. The session, titled "Retail Crime: Effects," was introduced by Lord Hannett of Everton, emphasizing a bipartisan approach to addressing a socially disruptive issue. The debate consisted mainly of insights from varied stakeholders, policy implications, statistical evidence, and references to ongoing campaigns and legislative measures.

Structure and Main Content

  • Introduction: Motion introduced by Lord Hannett focusing on the negative effects of retail crime.
  • Core Discussions: Testimonies from Lords revealing personal stories, statistical analyses, and propositions for legislative improvements to address retail crime.
  • Conclusion: Call for actionable steps and commendation of proposed policy changes.

Policy Terms, Legislation Names, and Technical Terminology

  • Legislation Mentioned: New specific offence of assaulting retail workers; repealing the £200 prosecution threshold for shoplifting.
  • Campaigns and Initiatives: USDAW’s Freedom From Fear campaign, and campaigns by the Co-operative Party and the British Retail Consortium.
  • Technical Terms: Facial recognition technology, THRIVE model, Pegasus project.

Named Entities

  • Speakers: Lord Hannett, Lord Kirkham, Baroness Hazarika, Lord Monks, Lord Davies of Gower among others.
  • Organizations: USDAW, British Retail Consortium (BRC), National Police Chiefs’ Council.
  • Locations: England and Wales, Scotland.

Numerical Data and Statistics

  • Shoplifting Reports: Nearly 470,000 offenses in England and Wales (ONS reporting), highlighting a 29% increase.
  • BRC Survey Data: Over 1,300 incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers daily.
  • Economic Impact: £1.8 billion loss due to retail crime in 2023.

References to Acts, Amendments, and Procedures

  • Criminal Justice References: Discussion about reassessment and adaptation of laws to support retail workers, such as removing the threshold for prosecuting shoplifters.
  • Past Legislative Actions: Comparison with Scotland's early adoption of protective laws for shop workers.

Related Parliamentary Business

  • Justice and Home Affairs Committee Report: Acknowledged with recommendations, supporting government actions on specific crimes against retail staff.

Political Positions and Policy Stances

  • Bipartisan Support: Agreement across the board to tackle retail crime and endorse measures proposed by competing parties.

Department Names and Governmental Bodies

  • Involved Entities: Home Office, Ministry of Justice, and Crime Ministers.

Key Dates and Timeframes

  • Legislative Milestones: Reference to the ongoing legislative processes and proposal timelines.
  • Historical Perspective: Discussion relating to policy changes from 2003 to 2023 and onwards.

Key Contributions

Original Transcript
Lord Hannett of Everton

That this House takes note of retail crime and its effect on workers, the community and local economies.

Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent
Lab

My Lords, there is limited time in the debate. There is a set time of two hours, so I ask noble Lords to please stick to the time limit.

Lord Hacking
Lab

Does my noble friend agree that the most shocking account in this debate was given by our noble friend Lady Hazarika who was in a shop when a rogue came in and stole two bottles of alcohol? He was known as a repeat offender and his identity was known.

Would my noble friend agree that that is a most shocking account for this framework to improve the law?

Lord Hanson of Flint
Lab

I am grateful to my noble friend for his intervention after I thought I had finished. Repeat offenders are part of a vicious cycle that needs to be broken. Part of that is due to alcohol or drug dependence and part of it is due to interventions in alcohol and drug dependence.

That is part of the focus of the Ministry of Justice. The MoJ will look at many measures in relation to how we better tag, control and monitor offenders and what interventions we make to reduce their dependence on alcohol and drugs.

It is important that the revolving door of prison sentences—the cycle of people going into prison for six months, coming out, committing the offences that my noble friend Lady Hazarika mentioned, going back to prison, coming out again and then finding themselves homeless—needs to be broken.

I know that my noble friend Lord Timpson, who is accountable to this House, is very exercised by those issues and will bring forward a number of measures to try to improve how we deal with offenders who have a persistent offending behaviour. Overall, the issues of tolerance are still there.

We should not tolerate shoplifting, attacks on shop staff or organised crime gangs, and we should look collectively at what measures we can bring. I hope that I have given some indication to the House of how we can do that.

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All content derived from official parliamentary records