Northern Ireland to introduce new offence to protect shop workers

Northern Ireland justice minister will soon introduce a new offence of assaulting a person providing a public service, performing a public duty or providing services to the public.

Usdaw and Northern Ireland Retail Consortium have last month jointly written to the justice minister, Naomi Long, to act decisively to ensure shop workers in Northern Ireland get the same legal protection from assault as their counterparts in England, Scotland and Wales.

The UK government has recently announced that it will introduce new legal protection for shop workers from violence. Scotland introduced its Protection of Shop Workers Act in 2021.

Both organisations have highlighted statistics from the Police Service of Northern Ireland showing that shoplifting in Northern Ireland had more than doubled since the pandemic. Results from Usdaw’s annual survey also reported that six in 10 incidents of violence, threats and abuse were triggered by shoplifting or armed robbery.

Usdaw said the justice minister, who agreed that the aggression displayed to retail workers was unwarranted and unacceptable, will introduce to the Assembly a new offence by way of a Sentencing Bill, providing the protection retail workers so desperately need.

“We welcome the justice minister moving rapidly on this issue and confirming that this new offence will be introduced in the Assembly in 2025,” Paddy Lillis, Usdaw general secretary, said.

“We are pleased to see that the offence goes further than what we called for and will rightly cover all public-facing workers. This will send a clear message to those abusing and assaulting public-facing workers that what they are doing is unacceptable and will land them with a stiffer sentence. Our hope is that this will result in retail staff getting the respect they deserve.”

Neil John, director of Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, added: “I am delighted that the justice minister has agreed to legislate on this crucial issue and that shop workers in Northern Ireland will receive the same protection as their colleagues in the rest of the UK.”