Assaulting shopworker to be made separate criminal offence after government U-turn

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Assaulting a shopworker is to be made a separate criminal offence after the government U-turned within the face of a long-running marketing campaign.

Ministers had beforehand dominated out legislating to create a brand new offence, saying in response to a parliamentary petition in October they didn’t suppose it was “required or will be most effective”.

But on Wednesday, Rishi Sunak introduced that his government would be amending its Criminal Justice Bill to carry within the new offence.

He mentioned: “I am sending a message to those criminals – whether they are serious organised criminal gangs, repeat offenders or opportunistic thieves – who think they can get away with stealing from these local businesses or abusing shopworkers, enough is enough.

“Our local shops are the lifeblood of our communities, and they must be free to trade without the threat of crime or abuse.”

The new offence will carry a most sentence of six months’ imprisonment or a limiteless fantastic, the identical sentence for the prevailing offence of widespread assault.

Repeat offenders may additionally be compelled to put on an digital tag, as may constant shoplifters, below amendments to the Bill at the moment making its means by means of Parliament.

The government additionally plans to pilot group sentencing measures with an as-yet unnamed police power to deal with excessive ranges of shoplifting, together with larger use of facial recognition expertise to determine folks needed by the police in crowded areas.

Judges have already got the facility to ban repeat offenders from sure retailers below criminal behaviour orders, with breaches bringing a most sentence of 5 years.

The transfer to create a separate offence follows a long-running marketing campaign from main retailers and Conservative backbencher Matt Vickers amid rising violence in opposition to retail employees.

Over the previous six months, greater than 47,000 folks have signed a petition calling for the creation of a separate offence of assaulting a retail employee.

But an preliminary response revealed final October mentioned: “The government is committed to supporting hardworking retail workers, who can suffer intolerable violence and abuse, but we do not think more legislative change is required or will be most effective.”

The response added that the government had already legislated in 2022 to make assaulting a “public-facing worker”, together with retail workers, an aggravated offence for sentencing “to emphasise that these types of assaults are totally unacceptable”.

Earlier this 12 months, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) revealed a report saying violent and abusive incidents in opposition to shopworkers had elevated 50% between 2021/22 and 2022/23.

Helen Dickinson, chairwoman of the BRC, welcomed the announcement, saying that “the voices of the three million people working in retail are finally being heard”.

She mentioned: “The impact of retail violence has steadily worsened, with people facing racial abuse, sexual harassment, threatening behaviour, physical assault and threats with weapons, often linked to organised crime.

“Victims are ordinary hardworking people – teenagers taking on their first job, carers looking for part-time work, parents working around childcare.”

Paddy Lillis, common secretary of retail union Usdaw, mentioned the government’s U-turn was “long overdue”.

He mentioned: “The dither and delay of this government, on this issue, over many years, has led to thousands of shopworkers needlessly suffering physical and mental injury.

“I hope that whatever the government is proposing will be substantial and effective in giving shopworkers, key workers in every community, the respect that they have long deserved and regrettably too often do not receive.”

Labour’s shadow residence secretary Yvette Cooper mentioned the government’s proposals had been “a pale imitation” of her personal occasion’s plans.

She mentioned: “Under the Tories too many communities and high streets are being blighted by staggering increases in shoplifting, up 30% in the last year alone.

“Labour has been calling for tougher action against those who assault shopworkers for more than 10 years. The Tories opposed and voted against our plans for better protection. Why has it taken them so long to act?”