Retail Crime

Unmesh Desai AM moved, and Léonie Cooper AM seconded the following motion: 

“This Assembly notes that this year has seen a major spike in incidents of retail crime both in terms of violence suffered by shop workers and of serious organised shoplifting.

The Assembly is clear that everyone has the right to be safe in their workplace and condemns the violence that shop and retail workers are suffering at work.

This Assembly notes the worrying trends we have seen this year. Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) data shows that in the past 12 months there has been a 54% increase in robbery from a business compared to the previous 12 months. This echoes the findings of the British Retail Consortium which published its crime survey showing that incidence of violence and abuse suffered by retail workers almost doubled in 2021/2022 compared to the pre-pandemic rate. Lastly, In July the CO-OP released data that showed that it had seen a 35% increase in the incidents of crime suffered in its stores, this equates to over 1000 per day in the first 6 months of the year.

This Assembly calls on the Mayor and the MPS to outline what steps they are taking to prevent the significant increase in retail theft and violence we have seen. We call on the Mayor to work with the MPS to look at whether all of these crimes are being fully investigated and how long the average response is. We also request the Mayor discusses this issue with business leaders and gets their input into how to address this issue.”

Following debate and upon being put to a vote, the motion was agreed unanimously.