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<p>The Government recognises the damaging impact that violence and abuse can have
on victims, businesses, and the wider community; and we are committed to tackling
this issue. Any incident of violent or abusive behaviour towards retail workers is
completely unacceptable and especially so in current circumstances during the covid-19
outbreak. Everyone has the right to feel safe at work.</p><p> </p><p>The Government
does not hold data on the number of incidents of abusive or violent behaviour towards
retail workers during the covid-19 outbreak period, however the Home Office is working
closely with police and retail industry to monitor and understand these types of incidents
during the current period.</p><p> </p><p>We launched a call for evidence on violence
and abuse toward shop staff to help strengthen our understanding of the scale and
extent of the issue. The call for evidence has now closed and my intention had been
to publish the Government response before the end of March. As the Government must
focus its communications on tackling covid-19, the publication of the Government response
has been delayed and will be published in due course.</p>
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