Retail crime ‘spiralling out of control’ says BRC

New figures from the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) Annual Crime Survey have brought forth increased concern about the levels of retail violence and abuse in the UK, with the organisation’s chief executive, Helen Dickinson, stating that the situation is “spiralling out of control”.

According to the survey, incidents of violence and abuse over 2023/24, including racial abuse, physical assault or threats with weapons, climbed to more than 2,000 per day, increasing over 50 percent on the year prior and more than three times the number reported in 2020. Threats involving a weapon doubled to 70 incidents a day.

Despite the number of incidents continuing to grow, satisfaction with police has remained low, with 61 percent of responding retailers stating that police response has been ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’. Only 3 percent described the response as ‘excellent’.

While accounts of theft, of which over 20 million incidents were reported, cost retailers 2.2 billion pounds in 2023/24, the amount spent on crime prevention has also reached record highs, with retailers investing 1.8 billion pounds on such measures.

In the report, Dickinson said that the three million people working in retail were owed efforts to bring “the epidemic of crime to heel”. She added: “With little faith in police attendance, it is no wonder criminals feel they have licence to steal, threaten, assault and abuse.

“Retailers are spending more than ever before, but they cannot prevent crime alone. We need the police to respond to and handle every reported incident appropriately. We look forward to seeing crucial legislation to protect retail workers being put in place later this year. Only if the industry, government and police work together, can we finally see this awful trend reverse.”

The increase in crime comes in spite of a prior pledge made by the new Labour Government to address retail violence through stronger measures, with initiatives such as an increase in threshold to “low level” theft and making the assault of a retail worker a standalone offence having been previously spoken of.