Today, we've launched our Fighting Retail Crime plan – a new package of measures to tackle prolific shop theft and criminals who attack retail workers.
Since 2010 we have cut crime excluding fraud by 55 per cent, but shop workers and keepers continue to be impacted by unacceptable incidents of theft, abuse and violence.That is why the Prime Minister has launched a crackdown on these offences through a raft of new measures such as tags for repeat offenders to prevent future offences, £55.5 million for facial recognition technology to identify offenders and a specific new offence for assaulting shop workers, delivering on our plan to drive down crime.
In areas with a Labour Police and Crime Commissioner (or the London Labour Mayor!) you are 40 per cent more likely to be a victim of crime, because Labour do not have a plan to cut crime. By sticking to the Conservatives long term plan to tackle crime, we are making our streets and communities safer for you and your family.
Our Fighting Retail Crime plan includes:
- A new standalone criminal offence for assaults on retail workers, sending a clear message that there will be tough consequences for this unacceptable behaviour.
- We will amend the Criminal Justice Bill so perpetrators face being sent to prison for up to six months, receiving an unlimited fine, and being banned from going back to the shop where they committed their crimes, with Criminal Behaviour Orders barring them visiting specific premises. Breaching an Order is also a criminal offence and carries a five-year maximum prison sentence. For the most serious cases of assault, offenders could face a life sentence.
- Expanding the use of GPS tagging for repeat shoplifters, a constant reminder to offenders that the Probation Service can find out where they have been, with the risk of prison time if they don’t comply. Under an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, if an offender is found guilty of assaulting staff three times, or is sentenced for shoplifting on three separate occasions, they should be made to wear a tag.
- Investing £55.5 million over the next four years for the police to roll out facial recognition technology, helping catch criminals. We will also ensure private businesses have the legal and regulatory clarity needed to use such technology themselves with confidence.
- Helping businesses report these crimes and prevent them from happening in the first place. We will fund a new prize to encourage the design of new crime prevention systems and bring retailer and insurers together to identify new ways of ‘designing out crime’.
- We will help businesses adopt cutting-edge digital evidence management systems, so that they can more easily share evidence with the police and fund a new phase of the Pegasus police-business data-sharing partnership, contingent on the success of its first phase.
We're doing all this and yet Labour STILL can’t say how they will tackle crime because they do not have a plan – where they have come into power without a plan, the British people are more likely to be a victim of crime. That is why Sir Keir Starmer voted against tougher sentences in the PCSC Act and why under Labour Police and Crime Commissioner’s, you are 40 per cent more likely to be a victim of crime.
