UK's newly-elected Labour government is set to bring the amendment this week to make assaulting retail workers a special offence, stated recent reports.
In the first King's Speech since winning the General Election, the new government will include new measures to tackle with the crisis facing businesses and staff. The speech - to be delivered by King Charles on Wednesday (17) at the State Opening of Parliament outlining the Government's priorities - is expected to include a new criminal offence of assaulting shop workers.
Labour's crime bill will also include a clampdown on the sale of knives and a string of measures to tackle violence against women, which it has pledged to halve within a decade.
Writing in The Times, Ken Murphy, chief executive of Tesco, urged the new government to introduce the new law at the earliest.
Murphy stated that 11 of its store workers were assaulted every day at Christmas, while 39 per cent of serious incidents involved a weapon during the first quarter of this year. A single assault on a shop worker is unacceptable, but this "steep rise must see this issue put right at the heart of the incoming government’s legislative agenda", he said.
Murphy's call resonates with John Lewis and the Co-op, who have called for more action to protect their staff amid a rise in crime.
Violence and abuse against shop workers rose to 1,300 incidents a day last year, according the British Retail Consortium. The retail trade body found that incidents against staff were up by 50 per cent in the year to September 2023, from 870 incidents a day the year before.
Attacks on retail workers tripled during the pandemic and have remained much higher since then.
Paul Gerrard, public affairs director at the Co-Op, told The Mirror, "We've had to move a colleague from their home because of threats they were facing at home. We've spoken to (Home Secretary) Yvette Cooper and she was very affected by what she's heard.
"It's absolutely vital, I know how important this is to the Labour Home Office team," he said, adding that attacks on retail workers had soared, fuelled by organised gangs.
Retailers also say the 2014 decision to make a theft of under £200 a summary offence with a maximum penalty of £70 has sparked a rise in shoplifting cases.
Making the attack on retail workers a special offence was first introduced by former prime minister Rishi Sunak in April this year by introducing an amendment to Criminal and Justice Bill. However, the proposed amendment collapsed when Sunak called a General Election the following month.
Simon Hannah
