image source, Getty Images
- Author, Anna Lamche
- Role, BBC news
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A crackdown on shoplifting is expected to be announced in the King’s Speech on Wednesday.
The Government is to bring forward a new crime bill to target people who steal goods worth less than £200.
The policy would be a repeal of the 2014 legislation which made “low value” thefts worth less than £200 they were subjected to less severe punishments.
It is expected that the government will also include the specific crime of assaulting a shop worker in its legislative agenda.
It won’t be clear what the penalties will be for any new or toughened offenses until the bill passes through parliament.
Police recorded more than 430,000 crimes in these countries in 2023 – although retailers say under-reporting means these figures are likely to represent only a fraction of the actual number of incidents.
Michelle Whitehead, who works in a convenience store in Wolverhampton, said her store was “hit every day” by thieves.
People were stealing “absolutely anything” including “cans of Spam, cans of corned beef, all the fresh meat”, Ms Whitehead told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme.
“They just come in and take the whole arm and sweep it off the shelves,” she said. “The shelves were always empty.”
She said she believed “organised” criminal gangs were behind the thefts at her shop rather than individuals struggling with the cost of living.
Cracking down on “low-value” theft “is going to help a lot of small businesses,” Whitehead said.
While retailers and store workers welcomed the expected proposals, a civil liberties group raised concerns about criminalizing people struggling to make ends meet and overburdening the prison system.
The new legislative measures are expected to be announced as part of the King’s Speech on Wednesday, a key part of the State Opening of Parliament that will allow the government to outline its priorities for the coming months.
Ahead of the general election, the Labor Party pledged to overturn what it described as the “thieves’ charter” – a piece of legislation in 2014 that reduced criminal penalties for “low-value theft”.
Tom Holder, a spokesman for the British Retail Consortium (BRC), told BBC News that the impact of the 2014 legislation had been “deprioritised in the eyes of the police”.
“I think the police would be less likely to turn to what they see as low-level theft,” he said.
Shoplifting has cost retailers £1.8 billion in the past year, which the BRC says could affect prices.
“Shoplifting hurts everyone in that sense – eventually those costs are offset somewhere, whether it’s through price increases or other prices that can’t be lowered,” Mr Holder said.
The Co-operative’s director of campaigns and public affairs Paul Gerrard said the supermarket chain had also seen an increase in theft and violence against store staff.
“There have always been people stealing for a living. That’s not what’s behind the rise we’ve seen,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Tuesday. to store large volumes of stock in stores for resale in illegal establishments such as pubs, clubs, markets and cars.”
But Jodie Beck, policy and campaigns officer at the civil liberties organization Liberty, had concerns expected proposals, saying “there are already a wide range of powers” that the police can use to tackle shoplifting and anti-social behavior directed at retail staff.
Beck said the “£200 cap” would not only target criminal gangs, but also “people who are forced into a desperate situation where they don’t pay for things” because they can’t afford to make ends meet.
She urged the government not to focus on “criminal justice and policing solutions instead of doing thoughtful work targeting the root causes of crime, which we believe are linked to poverty and inequality”.
Mrs. Beck, too argued that additional legislation could serve to worsen the UK’s “huge court backlog” and its “bursting prison system”.
A Downing Street spokesman said the government would not comment on the King’s Speech until the monarch had delivered it.
The National Council of Chiefs of Police has been approached for comment.