The government has finally agreed to introduce an amendment to make attacking a retail worker an aggravated offence, resulting in tougher sentencing for offenders.
The trade bodies for independent convenience stores have earlier expressed their disappointment at the government’s failure to take action to introduce tougher sentences for shopworkers. In the recent Lords debate on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill held on 17th November 2021, amendments to make attacking someone working in retail a more serious offence were withdrawn.
Speaking during the debate, Minister Baroness Williams of Trafford said, “Obviously, a wide range of offences already exist covering assaults on any worker, including retail workers, and they include offences such as common assaults.”
The minister also mentioned the government’s previous commitment to address this issue in the Lords. During an earlier debate in the Commons on this Bill, Victoria Atkins, now Minister of State for Prisons and Probation, had said, “I make it clear that we want to assure my honourable friend and Members of all parties that we are not complacent about the matter and that we are actively considering tabling an amendment, if appropriate, in the Lords."
In the debate, Baroness Williams said: “In the Commons, Minister Atkins committed to actively consider this issue and that remains the government’s position, but as part of that process of consideration I very much wanted to hear and then reflect on the debate today.”
The trade bodies weigh in
Displeasure with the outcome echoed across the grocery and retail sectors. “We are extremely disappointed that the government has once again failed to take urgent action to protect colleagues working in our sector,” ACS chief executive James Lowman commented then.
“These amendments would’ve introduced a new specific offence for attacks on shop workers in line with recently passed legislation in Scotland and provided our colleagues with the additional protection that they so desperately need. Violent and abusive incidents can be traumatic for the individuals, often with significant emotional and physical implications and shop workers should be provided with the same level of protection across the UK.
“Violence and abuse towards staff is a top concern for retailers and we will continue to call for the Government to introduce tougher penalties for attacks on shop workers to send the clear message that these incidents are unacceptable and should not be tolerated.”
The chairman of the Federation of Independent Retailers’ (NFRN) political engagement committee Shahid Razzaq said, “We are grateful to the members of the House of Lords who supported retailers during [the] debate by raising the plight that people working in shops face every day. Theft, vandalism and physical and verbal attacks are an all too familiar part of life for independent retailers.
“We will continue to lobby the government, police chiefs, and police and crime commissioners for greater legal protection for everyone who works in retail.”
The NFRN had then expressed hope that the last debate, and the support the amendment received across the House, will encourage the government to table its own amendment to the Bill, guaranteeing support in the House of Lords and crucially, when the Bill returns to the House of Commons.
On 14 September 2021, the House of Lords had debated the main principles and purpose of the proposed Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill during its second reading. The bill aims to make changes across the criminal justice system, and the NFRN and other trade bodies have been consistently advocating for the inclusion of retail crime to be specifically named in the bill’s amendments.
During the second reading, parliament members discussed assaults on emergency and retail workers. Four Lords spoke in support of the adjustments for the bill to contain retail crime, including Baroness Williams of Trafford. Williams discussed the antisocial behaviour aspect of retail crime, saying “I share their concerns about the unacceptable increase, during the pandemic, of assaults on shop workers. There is already a wide range of offences that criminalise disorderly and violent behaviour that would apply in cases of violence towards people whose work brings them into contact with members of the public.
“These offences cover the full spectrum of unacceptable behaviour, from using abusive language to the most serious and violent offences. Nonetheless, the Government has agreed to actively consider whether legislative change is necessary and to bring forward any proposal if it is.”
Meanwhile, Lord Rosser discussed how the pandemic and lockdown restrictions have seen a rapid increase in retail crime, but he stressed it was not a new occurrence: “On retail workers, it is important to recognise that assaults are not just a problem born of the pandemic. Although the pandemic heightened it, this has been a rising problem faced by shop workers for many years.”
In October 2021, in the House of Lords, Baroness Neville-Rolfe and Lord Coaker tabled amendments aimed at giving retailers in England and Wales similar legal protection as retailers receive in Scotland, where attacking a shop worker is now an “aggravated” offense.
Representative iStock image of retail crime
Why associations want harsher laws
According to the BRC crime survey 2021, the frequency of violence and abuse rose from 424 incidents to 455 incidents, every single day. That’s over 150,000 incidents of abuse and violence every year. Figures from the 2021 ACS Crime Report also show that there were over 1.1m incidents of theft over the last year, many of which were committed by repeat offenders with a drug or alcohol addiction. The report also shows that there have been over 1.2m incidents of abuse over the last year, which often go unreported.
“Our Shopworkers’ Protection Pledge, signed by over 50 cross-party MPs, called for politicians to stand with retail workers to support legislation to better protect them. That is why we have called for a standalone offence of assaulting a shopworker, deterring would-be criminals, and providing our colleagues with the protections they need. It has happened in Scotland – and now the Government must follow their lead in England,” said the British Retail Consortium (BRC) report.
“To date, the UK Government has resisted the proposal arguing that current laws on violence and abuse covering the general population, together with the potential for sentencing perpetrators with an aggravated offence, are insufficient. We reject that.” BRC said, “Our survey clearly shows that approach is not working. Only six per cent of attacks ever result in prosecution and an even smaller handful of three per cent in prosecution as an aggravated offence. Interestingly attacks resulting in injury represent six per cent of all attacks.”
The association believes that the introduction of a standalone offence for Emergency Workers has succeeded in ensuring such crimes are prosecuted. It would seem that even clearly illegal abuse for racial or sexual orientation is not being taken before the courts. Failure to prosecute means the victims do not ever get the opportunity to make a victim impact statement.
A standalone offence would also help to ensure that the true extent of the problem is understood by police and officials, as statistics would be recorded against this offence rather than against general offences without mention of the retail connection. Failure to prosecute undermines confidence in the police, which is reflected in the statistics on perceptions of the police response. While these have improved, they still stand at less than 50 per cent.
Other more detailed policies suggested in BRC crime survey 2021 that the Government should adopt include:
Set up a fund for innovative solutions for tackling violence in the retail sector
Include retail crime as a strategic policing priority with appropriate resourcing and prioritisation
A Home Office led strategic review of best practice for retail partnerships
A single online reporting tool
A Review of retail violence by the Police Inspectorate
Using the College of Policing to improve understanding of retail crimes of violence
Better recording of retail crimes of violence
Review of out of court disposals
Removal of reports of abuse and violence as a reason to reject a licence renewal
Increased penalties and sentences
Police and Crime Commissioners to make provision for retail violence in their Police and Crime Plans, making it a priority in their strategy.
Violence and Abuse Against Retailers: Timeline by ACS
March 2019: ACS, Home Office and retail sector launch #AlwaysReportAbuse campaign.
April 2019: Call for evidence on violence and abuse is launched, and receives responses from almost 3,500 interested parties, including retailers and colleagues that have been victims of abuse and violence at work.
March 2020: Yvette Cooper speakers at Retail Industry Parliament Reception on violence and abuse against shopworkers.
March 2020: Ten Minute Rule motion on Assaults on Retail Workers, proposed by Alex Norris MP, is passed and added to the register of Parliamentary business. The Bill is first scheduled to be debated in April 2020, but is subsequently delayed.
May 2020: Police and Crime Commissioner elections are delayed due to Coronavirus, currently scheduled to take place in May 2021.
July 2020: Government issues formal response to call for evidence on violence and abuse over a year after the consultation closed, stating that no changes to the law are necessary.
September 2020: Crime Minister Kit Malthouse writes to all Police and Crime Commissioners, reminding them of the importance of prosecuting shop theft offences under the value of £200 as well as those over £200.
December 2020: Home Affairs Select Committee launches new consultation, looking at whether the Government’s own response to its call for evidence was adequate.
February 2021: Scottish Parliament passes the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act. The Bill was sponsored by Daniel Johnson MSP and introduced an aggravated offence for attacks on shopworkers
March 2021: ACS launches 2021 Crime Report, revealing that 89% of colleagues in stores have been the victim of abuse over the last year, with a total of 1.2m incidents of abuse recorded.
April 2021: ACS gives evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee, outlining the scale of the problem of violence and abuse against shopworkers.
April 2021: ACS, the Home Office, Crimestoppers and over 100 retailers and trade bodies come together to launch the #ShopKind campaign, funded by the Home Office.
May 2021: Second reading of Alex Norris’ Bill on Assaults on Retail Workers is once again delayed. A second reading date is yet to be set.
May 2021: Police and Crime Commissioner elections take place. ACS sets out a series of recommendations for Police and Crime Commissioners to encourage them to take retail crime more seriously.
June 2021: Shadow Policing Minister proposes an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill that would introduce a new offence for abusing a shopworker.
June 2021: Government rejects amendment to PCSC Bill, stating that existing legislation is adequate to deal with violence and abuse. Suggests that employers need to do more to increase reporting levels.
June 2021: Home Affairs Select Committee, led by Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP, publishes report on violence and abuse against retailers, calling for urgent action to address the problem. Recommendations include a new offence for attacking shopworkers, and a more formal response to incidents from police.
September 2021: Home Office responds the Home Affairs Select Committee report
November 2021: Amendments to the PCSC Bill related to attacks against shopworkers were debated and withdrawn.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper has announced plans to rebuild neighbourhood policing and combat surging shop theft as part of an ambitious programme of reform to policing.
In her first major speech at the annual conference hosted by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners on Tuesday, Cooper highlighted four of the key areas for reform: neighbourhood policing, police performance, structures and capabilities, crime prevention.
The initiatives she announced include:
a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee to get policing back to basics and rebuild trust between local forces and the communities they serve
a new Police Performance Unit to track national data on local performance and drive up standards
a new National Centre of Policing to harness new technology and forensics, making sure policing is better equipped to meet the changing nature of crime
The home secretary also announced more than half a billion pounds of additional central government funding for policing next year to support the government’s Safer Streets Mission, including an increase in the core grant for police forces, and extra resources for neighbourhood policing, the NCA and counter-terrorism.
In her speech, Cooper said that without a major overhaul to increase public confidence, the British tradition of policing by consent will be in peril.
“I am determined that neighbourhood policing must be rebuilt,” she said, pointing to its decline over the past decade. Cuts to community-based roles have left town centres vulnerable to rising crime and antisocial behaviour, she added.
“Shop theft is up at a record high, street theft is up 40 per cent in a year… Criminals – often organised gangs – are just getting away with it. We cannot stand for this,” she said.
Cooper reiterated the government’s commitment to deliver an additional 13,000 police officers, PCSOs and special constables in neighbourhood policing roles, adding that further steps will be announced in the coming weeks.
The reforms will restore community patrols with a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee and an enhanced role for Police and Crime Commissioners to prevent crime. The changes will also ensure that policing has the national capabilities it needs to fight fast-changing, complex crimes which cut across police force boundaries.
“The challenge of rebuilding public confidence is a shared one for government and policing. This is an opportunity for a fundamental reset in that relationship, and together we will embark on this roadmap for reform to regain the trust and support of the people we all serve and to reinvigorate the best of policing,” Cooper said.
Retailers are right to warn of potential job cuts as a result of tax increases announced at last month’s budget, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has said.
Bailey appeared before the cross-party Treasury select committee on Tuesday (19), after almost 80 retailers claimed rising costs would make “job losses inevitable, and higher prices a certainty”.
“I think there is a risk here that the reduction in employment could be more. Yes, I think that’s a risk,” Bailey said, adding that depending on how companies respond, there could be a bigger reduction in employment as a result of the NICs rise than the 50,000 jobs projected by the government’s spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
Bailey suggested the Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) would continue to reduce interest rates slowly from their current level of 4.75%, allowing time to assess the impact of the tax changes.
Rachel Reeves’s first budget increased taxes by £40bn, which Labour said would be used to fund creaking public services. The biggest revenue-raiser was a £25bn rise in employer national insurance contributions (NICs), which has prompted a backlash from business groups.
In a letter to the chancellor, retail bosses claimed this and other changes would cost the sector £7bn and lead to layoffs. Signatories included senior figures from Tesco, Greggs, H&M, B&Q and Specsavers.
The letter, which was organised by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and signed by 80 companies, warned the industry faces £7bn in increased costs as a result of changes to employers’ National Insurance, a higher minimum wage rise and levies on packaging.
It added that job losses were now “inevitable”, as a result of the “sheer scale” of the new costs on business.
The letter continued: “For any retailer, large or small, it will not be possible to absorb such significant cost increases over such a short timescale. The effect will be to increase inflation, slow pay growth, cause shop closures and reduce jobs, especially at the entry level. This will impact high streets and customers right across the country.”
The BRC estimates that retailers will face a £2.3bn bill from April, after the implementation of the increase in employer NICs from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent, as well as the reduction in the earnings threshold when they must start paying it, from £9,100 to £5,000.
Meanwhile, retailers are understood to have been contacted by the Treasury last week to find out whether they planned on giving their support to the letter, which criticised the Chancellor’s decision to impose extra costs on the industry. One industry source suggested the Government had been thrown into a “tizzy” by the prospect of a public letter rebuking the Chancellor.
The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) has urged independent shop owners to reach out to their local councils about the government's newly announced High Street Rental Auction (HSRA) powers, which aim to tackle persistently vacant commercial properties on UK high streets.
Introduced through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, the HSRA legislation will come into force on 2 December. It will give local authorities the ability to put the leases of long-term empty shops up for public auction, allowing businesses and community groups to secure short-term tenancies.
Andrew Goodacre, CEO of Bira, said: "The introduction of High Street Rental Auctions is a positive step forward in revitalising our town and city centres. For far too long, disengaged landlords have been allowed to leave key commercial properties sitting vacant, to the detriment of local businesses and communities."
"We urge all independent shop owners who have experienced issues with persistently empty premises in their area to engage with their local council. These new rental a provides an opportunity for retailers and other organisations to gain access to high street spaces that may have previously been off-limits."
The government has committed over £1 million in funding to support the HSRA process, which aims to breathe new life into town centres by bringing businesses, community services and customers back to the high street.
Goodacre added: "High streets are the beating heart of our local communities, and we cannot allow them to wither away due to landlord inaction. These new rental auction powers give opportunities to established or new retailers to secure affordable, short-term tenancies and expand their reach within their community."
Britain's annual inflation rate jumped more than expected in October to back above the Bank of England's target as households and businesses faced higher energy bills, official data showed Wednesday.
The Consumer Prices Index reached 2.3 per cent from a three-year low of 1.7 percent in the 12 months to September, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.
CPI was last at 2.3 percent in April, the ONS added in a statement, while analysts' consensus had been for the rate to climb back to 2.2 percent.
The Bank of England (BoE) target stands at 2.0 percent.
"Inflation rose... as the increase in the energy price cap meant higher costs for gas and electricity compared with a fall at the same time last year," ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said of October's data.
Britain's energy regulator Ofgem sets a price cap quarterly that suppliers can charge customers. The latest increase in October was 10 per cent but this is expected to drop markedly in January according to forecasts.
The regulator had cited rising prices on international energy markets owing to increasing geopolitical tensions, and extreme weather events driving competition for gas, as the reasons behind the sharp rise.
"We know that families across Britain are still struggling with the cost of living," senior Treasury official Darren Jones said in reaction to Wednesday's inflation reading and saying the Labour government needed to do more to help.
Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices rose by 1.9 per cent in the year to October, up from 1.8 per cent to September 2024. The annual rate of 1.9 per cent in October compares with 10.1 per cent in the same month last year.
Analysts said despite prices rising faster than expected, the BoE remained on course to keep cutting British interest rates.
"But it lends some support... that the Bank will skip the December meeting and cut rates only gradually, by 25 basis points in February and at every other policy meeting until rates reach 3.50 percent in early 2026," forecast Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics research group.
The central bank earlier this month trimmed borrowing costs by 25 basis points to 4.75 per cent.
Following its decision, the BoE added that a maiden budget from Britain's Labour government in October, featuring tax rises and increased borrowing, would boost growth but also lift inflation.
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Nestle logos are pictured in the supermarket of Nestle headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland, February 13, 2020
Nestle on Tuesday said it will increase investment in advertising and marketing to 9 per cent of sales by the end of 2025. The company also announced plans to make its waters and premium beverages activities a global standalone business from New Year.
Unveiling a plan to fuel and accelerate growth at a Capital Markets Day for investors and analysts, the Swiss group also said it aims cost savings of at least CHF 2.5 billion (£2.25bn) above existing initiatives by end 2027 to fund increased investments.
“Our iconic brands and innovative products connect with people every day, at every stage of their lives. These strengths give us a unique advantage and position us to win in the marketplace. We will now invest further in our brands and growth platforms to unlock the full potential of our products for our consumers and our customers,” Laurent Freixe, Nestlé chief executive, commented.
“Our action plan will also improve the way we operate, making us more efficient, responsive and agile. I am confident that we can deliver superior, sustainable and profitable growth and gain market share, while transforming Nestlé for long-term success.”
Nestlé confirmed its 2024 guidance, with organic sales growth of around 2 per cent, underlying trading operating profit margin of around 17 per cent and underlying EPS broadly flat in constant currency. Looking ahead to 2025, the company expects an improvement in organic sales growth compared to 2024, with the underlying trading operating profit margin anticipated to be moderately lower than the 2024 guidance.
Nestle last month lowered its outlook for 2024 to 2 per cent as the company reported falling sales for the first nine months of the year.
The consumer goods major, whose brands range from Nespresso coffee capsules to Purina dog food and Haagen-Dazs ice cream, had already cut its annual sales growth expectations from 4 per cent to 3 per cent in July.
The company on Tuesday said it expects organic growth to be over 4 per cent in the medium term, in a normal operating environment, with an underlying trading operating profit margin of over 17 per cent.
Nestle said the its new action plan will allow it to drive category growth and improve market share performance.
Actions will include targeted investments in winning brands and growth platforms, more focused innovation activities to drive greater impact, and systematically addressing underperformers.
Nestle will step up investment in advertising and marketing to support growth. The necessary resources will be generated through cost savings and growth leverage.
As part of the action plan to drive operational performance, Nestle’s water and premium beverages activities will become a global standalone business under the leadership of Muriel Lienau, head of Nestlé Waters Europe, as of January 1, 2025.
Nestle said the new management will evaluate the strategy for this business, including partnership opportunities.